Lesson 7 — Shopping · A1

0

Goals

What you'll be able to do

By the end of this lesson, you can:

Shop for clothes (look for, ask, choose)
Ask for a size and a price (combien? ça coûte?)
Use demonstrative adjectives (ce, cet, cette, ces)
Comment on something (très joli, pas mal, nul, bon marché, cher)
Count up to 1000

1

Discover — In the boutique

A mum shops for her kids

A mother is looking for clothes for her children.

Dialogue — For her son and daughter

Vendeuse —Bonjour, madame. Qu'est-ce que vous cherchez ? Hello, ma'am. What are you looking for?
Cliente —Des vêtements pour ma fille et mon fils. Clothes for my daughter and my son.
Vendeuse —Quel âge ont-ils ? How old are they?
Cliente —Ma fille a 16 ans et mon fils 14 ans. My daughter is 16 and my son 14.
Vendeuse —Pour les filles, c'est sur ces étagères, à gauche. Et pour les garçons, à droite. Girls' clothes are on these shelves, on the left. Boys' on the right.
Cliente —J'aime bien ce type de pantalon, c'est très joli ! Vous avez quelles couleurs, s'il vous plaît ? I quite like this style of trousers, it's lovely! What colours do you have, please?
Vendeuse —Ce pantalon ? Il y a des bleus, des gris ou noirs. Il coûte 59 euros. These trousers? They come in blue, grey or black. They cost 59 euros.
Cliente —Ce n'est pas très cher. Et ces chaussures ? C'est combien ? That's not too expensive. And these shoes? How much?
Vendeuse —35 euros. Avec ce pull et ce pantalon, ça fait 94 euros, madame. 35 euros. With this jumper and these trousers, that's 94 euros, ma'am.
Cliente —Voilà ! Here you go!

📝 Notes

① Quel âge ont-ils? — to ask the age of more than one person. Singular: Quel âge a-t-il / a-t-elle?

② J'aime bien ce type de pantalon — ce type de = "this style of". J'aime bien is more measured than j'aime beaucoup — closer to "I quite like" than "I love".

③ Combien? "How much?" — for asking the price.

C'est combien? | Ça fait combien? | Ça coûte combien?
Combien coûte ce pantalon?

④ Ce n'est pas très cher / pas du tout cher — pas du tout = "not at all". A stronger negation.

⑤ Voilà! — said when handing something over (money, an object…). "Here you go!" / "There!"

2

Vocabulary

Words to remember

🛍️ Shopping

French	Type	English
acheter	v.	to buy
une boutique	n.f.	shop, boutique
chercher	v.	to look for
cher / chère	adj.	expensive
combien	interr. adv.	how much / how many
coûter	v.	to cost
faire (ça fait…)	v.	"that comes to / that's…" (total)
le prix	n.m.	price
un pull	n.m.	jumper / sweater (short for pull-over)
une robe	n.f.	dress
la taille	n.f.	size; waist
trouver	v.	to think (an opinion); to find
le type	n.m.	type, style

💬 Reacting

French	Type	English
bien	adv. / adj.	well; good
bon (bonne)	adj.	good
bon marché	phrase	cheap, inexpensive (always invariable)
joli(e)	adj.	pretty, nice-looking
nul(le)	adj.	terrible, useless (slang)
pas du tout	phrase	not at all
très	adv.	very
ah bon ?	interj.	oh, really?
hum !	interj.	hmm…
voilà	interj.	here you go; there!

👗 Clothing sizes: French clothing sizes use a numerical system different from US/UK. Roughly: a French 36 ≈ US 4 / UK 8 women's; 40 ≈ US 8 / UK 12. Men's shirts use neck size in cm. Always check the local size chart.

3

Numbers 70 → 1000

For prices and beyond

Recap from Lesson 0-4 plus new numbers for talking about prices.

#	Word	Notes
70	soixante-dix	= 60 + 10
80	quatre-vingts	= 4 × 20 (with -s)
90	quatre-vingt-dix	= 4 × 20 + 10
100	cent	—
200	deux cents	with -s when it's exactly 200, 300…
250	deux cent cinquante	no -s when followed by another number
1 000	mille	invariable
10 000	dix mille	—
100 000	cent mille	—
1 000 000	un million (de)	+ de before a noun

💡 Prices in euros: 59 € is read "cinquante-neuf euros". 59,50 € = "cinquante-neuf euros cinquante" (note the comma — French uses commas as decimal points, not dots).

4

Grammar

How French works

1. quel in the plural All four forms

Recap of all 4 forms (we saw quel/quelle in Lesson 3, now with the plural):

	Masculine	Feminine
Singular	quel garçon	quelle fille
Plural	quels vêtements	quelles couleurs

Quels vêtements est-ce qu'il porte?
Quelles couleurs vous avez?

🔊 All 4 forms quel · quelle · quels · quelles are pronounced the same: [kɛl]. The difference is only in writing.

2. comment and combien "how" and "how much"

Two essential question words:

Word	Meaning	Examples
comment	how	Vous vous appelez comment? · Christine va comment?
combien	how much / how many	Ça coûte combien? · Combien de pulls vous avez?

⚠️ combien + de + noun (no article!): combien d'enfants?, combien de pantalons?
English uses "of" for "how much": "how much of it" — French uses just de.

3. Demonstrative adjectives ce, cette, ces "this / that / these / those"

Demonstratives point at something or someone. French has fewer forms than English (4 instead of 4: this/that/these/those) — French doesn't distinguish "this" from "that".

	Masculine	Feminine
Singular	ce garçon · cet étudiant	cette fille
Plural	ces garçons · ces filles · ces étudiants

💡 Before a vowel or silent h, masculine singular ce becomes cet: cet ami, cet hôtel, cet homme (the awkward ce ami doesn't exist). Note: cet and cette are pronounced the same — only spelling differs.

Ce pantalon coûte 59 euros.
Cette robe est très jolie.
Cet homme est blond.
Ces chaussures sont noires.

🔄 "This" vs "that": French uses the same word for both. To insist on the distance, you can add -ci ("here") or -là ("there") to the noun: cette robe-ci vs cette robe-là. In practice, French speakers often don't bother — context is enough.

5

How to say it

Useful chunks

① Commenting on something

C'est un pull bleu, très très joli.
Ce sac est très cher.
C'est nul. / C'est bien.

② Asking & giving the price

— C'est combien? — Il coûte 59 euros.
— Quel est le prix de ce pull? — Il coûte 30 euros.
— Ça fait combien? — Ça fait 94 euros, madame.

③ Expressing tastes

J'aime beaucoup. · Tu aimes cette robe?
Pas du tout. "Not at all."

6

Practice

Try it out

Exercise 1 — ce, cet, cette, ces Demonstratives

Fill in with the right form.

pantalon
robe
chaussures
ami
hôtel
femme
tee-shirts
chapeau

Exercise 2 — quel, quelle, quels, quelles All four forms

Pick the right form.

vêtements vous cherchez?
couleurs vous avez?
est le prix?
taille faites-vous?
pantalons aimes-tu?

Exercise 3 — How much / how many? Combien ?

Pick the right phrasing for each context.

To ask the price of a sweater:
To ask how many children someone has:
To ask someone's name:
To ask someone's clothing size:

Exercise 4 — Listen to the numbers Écoutez

Listen and repeat the numbers from 70 to 1000.

7

Communicate

Real-world tasks

Exercise 5 — What's the price? Quel est le prix ?

Listen to the dialogue and write down the prices on the Boutique.net website.

House item ref. M 958 → €
Grey phone ref. T 791 → €
Black leather goods ref. S 162 → €
Red leather goods ref. S 162 → €

✏️ Note by hand and check together as a class.

Exercise 6 — Roleplay Jeu de rôle

Pair work. You walk into a clothing shop. You ask for a pair of trousers, then a sweater. Act out the scene with your partner.

Useful expressions: bonjour, je cherche, quelle taille, quelle couleur, c'est combien, ça fait, voilà, merci, au revoir.

8

Pronunciation — Liaison & linking

Spotting joined-up syllables

Listen and mark the liaisons (‿) between words.

C'est‿un objet.
Tu as‿un‿ami français?
Cet‿objet est‿à lui.
Cette étagère est très grande. (no liaison between très and grande because g is a consonant)