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Bonjour,

I am having trouble understanding why the French say "combien ça coute" as opposed to "combien ce coute"?

Online I have found that ça means 'that' whilst 'ce' means 'this', but of course in English, you can say both 'how much does this cost' and 'how much does that cost'. Duolingo, on the other hand, only likes the version with ça

Thanks

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"combien ce coute" is incorrect. "combien ça coute" is correct though familiar. you might say "combien cela coute". "ça" or "cela" are pronoms démonstratifs, but "ce" is an adjectif démonstratif, this is why you can't use it here.

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    I wouldn't say "Combien cela coute?" but "Combien ceci/cela coûte-t-il?" (if you want to distinguish this/that, which is not necessary in French).
    – radouxju
    Commented Jul 24, 2020 at 10:59

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