Asking for prices (Zenbat balio du?)

To go shopping, you need to know how to ask for the price and understand the answer. In Basque, there are two basic questions, depending on whether you’re looking at a specific product on the counter or you’re ready to pay.

The two key questions

Basque	English	When
Zenbat balio du?	How much does it cost?	looking at a specific product
Zenbat da?	How much is it?	at the end, when paying
Zenbatean dago kiloa?	How much is a kilo?	asking the price per unit

Zenbat means “how much/how many”. Balio is “to be worth”. Du is the “has/does” form of the verb ukan.

Responding with the price

There are two common structures:

• X euro balio du — It costs X euros.
  • Botilak lau euro balio du. → The bottle costs 4 euros.
• Kiloa X eurotan dago — The kilo is X euros.
  • Kiloa hamar eurotan dago. → The kilo is 10 euros.

Eurotan is “in euros” (plural inessive). In daily speech, it’s also very common to just hear “Hamar euro” without a verb, just like in English.

If you find it expensive or cheap

• Garestia da — It’s expensive.
• Merkea da — It’s cheap.
• Hau garestia da! — This is expensive!
• Merkeak ere ez! — They aren’t cheap either! (literally: “not even cheap”)

Paying and the change

• Zenbat da dena? — How much is everything?
• Tori! — Here you go! (when giving the money, very common)
• Txartelaz ordain dezaket? — Can I pay by card?
• Hemen daukazu kanbioa. — Here’s your change.

Cultural note: in many small neighborhood shops, paying in cash is still the norm, so txartelaz ordain dezaket? is a useful question when you go in for the first time.