When to use it
Use it at the ticket office or at a machine to ask the price of a ticket. In Paris the metro is just "le métro".
“How much does this metro ticket cost?” — The sentence in English
"How much does this metro ticket cost?" asks for a price. "How much" opens the question, the auxiliary "does" comes before the subject, and "cost" stays in its base form. "Metro ticket" is a compound noun.
- How
- adverbquestion word asking about the way or manner
- much
- adverb"how much" asks about price or quantity
- does
- auxiliary verbdo · tense: present · person: third · number: singular · auxiliary that makes the question
- this
- determinerdemonstrative determiner
- metro
- nounnoun; it says what kind of ticket
- ticket
- nounnoun
- cost
- verbcost · form: base form (infinitive without "to") · after "does" the verb stays in its base form
“Combien coûte ce billet de métro ?” — The sentence in French
"Combien coûte ce billet de métro ?" starts with "combien" and puts the verb "coûte" before the subject, which is a simple way to ask in French. "Ce" is the demonstrative "this". French writes a space before the question mark.
- Combien
- adverbquestion adverb: "how much"
- coûte
- verbcoûter · tense: present · mood: indicative · person: third · number: singular · "costs"
- ce
- determinerdemonstrative determiner: "this"
- billet
- nounmasculine noun: "ticket"
- de
- prepositionpreposition: "of"; "billet de métro" means "metro ticket"
- métro
- nounmasculine noun: "metro", "subway"
English × French: What changes from one language to the other
English needs the auxiliary "does"; French just inverts the verb and the subject. English says "metro ticket"; French says "billet de métro", with the main word first. French typography adds a space before "?".
Example conversation
— Combien coûte ce billet de métro ?
— How much does this metro ticket cost?
— Ça dépend de la zone.
— It depends on the zone.