Asking prices: 'cât costă'

Pattern

Cât costă ___? = "How much does ___ cost?" Answer: Costă ___ lei.

Explanation

To ask the price of a single item, use Cât costă ___? Cât costă o cafea? (How much does a coffee cost?). For multiple items, the verb shifts to plural: Cât costă merele? (How much do the apples cost?) — but in casual speech, cât costă is often used regardless. The price is given with costă + number + lei (or whatever currency).

You can drop the noun in context: pointing at something and saying Cât costă? is normal. Vendors and waiters expect this phrase. A polite version adds vă rog (please): Cât costă, vă rog?

For asking about the total, use Cât face? (literally "how much does it make?") — this is common at the cash register. Cât face în total? (How much in total?). Both cât costă and cât face are everyday phrases worth memorizing as units.

Examples

Common mistakes

• Asking "cât este costul": Too formal/textbook. Just cât costă.
• Forgetting "de" with 20+: Costă 100 lei is wrong — say 100 de lei.
• Mixing up "costă" and "este": For price, always costă, not este.