Ce cadre coûte trop cher.

Ce is the masculine singular demonstrative adjective, meaning this or that.

You use:

• ce before a masculine singular noun that starts with a consonant: ce cadre
• cet before a masculine singular noun that starts with a vowel or silent h: cet homme
• cette before a feminine singular noun: cette table
• ces for all plurals: ces cadres

Since cadre is masculine singular and starts with c, ce is the correct form.

Also, ce can mean either this or that in English. French often relies on context for that distinction.

Here, cadre is masculine, which is why the sentence uses ce and not cette.

You can tell from the form:

• singular: ce cadre
• plural: ces cadres

Like many French nouns, grammatical gender has to be learned with the word. Even if the meaning is already known, the gender still matters because it affects articles and adjectives.

Coûte is the present-tense, third-person singular form of the verb coûter.

The subject is ce cadre, which is singular, so the verb must also be singular:

• ce cadre coûte = this frame costs
• ces cadres coûtent = these frames cost

So:

• coûter = infinitive, to cost
• coûte = costs

Yes, you absolutely can say Ce cadre est trop cher.

Both are natural, but they are slightly different in feel:

• Ce cadre coûte trop cher = This frame costs too much / is too expensive
• Ce cadre est trop cher = This frame is too expensive

With coûter, French focuses more directly on the price. With être, it describes the item as expensive. In everyday French, both are common.

In the expression coûter cher, cher does not agree with the noun. It stays cher, even with feminine or plural subjects.

For example:

• Ce cadre coûte cher
• Cette robe coûte cher
• Ces meubles coûtent cher

That is because in this expression, cher behaves more like an adverbial expression meaning expensively or at a high price, rather than like a normal adjective agreeing with the noun.

So chère would be wrong here.

French uses the fixed expression coûter cher, not coûter chèrement.

Even though English learners may expect an adverb here, French simply says:

• ça coûte cher = it costs a lot / it is expensive

So this is an idiomatic pattern you should learn as a chunk:

• coûter cher
• coûter trop cher
• coûter très cher

This is an important difference:

• très cher = very expensive
• trop cher = too expensive

Trop implies excess. It suggests the price is more than acceptable, reasonable, or desired.

So:

• Ce cadre est très cher = This frame is very expensive
• Ce cadre coûte trop cher = This frame costs too much

Because trop is an adverb, and in French adverbs like très, trop, assez, and vraiment usually come before the adjective or adverb they modify.

So you get:

• trop cher
• très grand
• assez loin
• vraiment intéressant

That word order is normal in French.

A careful pronunciation is approximately:

suh kadr koot troh shair

More precisely in IPA: /sə kadʁ ku.t tʁo ʃɛʁ/

A few notes:

• ce is often pronounced suh or a very light s
• cadre has a pronounced French r
• coûte sounds like koot
• trop sounds like troh
• cher sounds like shair in many accents

The final e in cadre and coûte is silent.

The ô has a circumflex accent.

In traditional spelling, the verb is written coûter. The circumflex often reflects older historical spelling and sometimes marks the loss of an older s in the word’s history.

For pronunciation in modern French, the circumflex here usually does not create a big difference for learners. The important thing is recognizing and spelling the common standard form correctly:

• coûter
• coûte

You may also encounter couter in spelling reform contexts, but coûter is still the form most learners should know first.

It can mean either this frame or that frame.

French ce / cet / cette / ces does not always make the same clear this/that distinction that English does. Usually, context tells you which is meant.

If French wants to make the distinction clearer, it can add:

• ce cadre-ci = this frame
• ce cadre-là = that frame

So on its own, ce cadre can be either this frame or that frame depending on the situation.