We’re ready to boost your vocabulary with another French word, are you? In this edition of our weekly blog, we’ve chosen the word prix.
Take a listen to the correct pronunciation in the audio clip below:
When it comes to translating this into English, we might already recognise certain French words if they’ve bled over into everyday English. In this case, a lot of readers might know prix in the context of a motorsports ‘grand prix’, but have you ever wondered what this really means? In the context of a competition or race, it literally means ‘grand prize’ as in first place. But in French, the noun prix has two translations – ‘prize’ and ‘price’.
Due to having two meanings for the same word, you’ll see prix in lots of different situations and contexts as a masculine noun. It’s also worth noting that its plural spelling is exactly the same as its singular, because it ends in -x. You can read more about how you’d normally do this on our Easy Learning French Grammar page on making nouns plural.
As always, the best way to understand our word of the week, is by looking at some examples. We’ll start with examples related to ‘price’:
Est-ce que vous savez le prix ? Do you know the price?
Je ne vais jamais augmenter le prix. I’m never going to increase the price.
On devrait comparer les prix avant d’acheter une nouvelle voiture. We should compare the prices before buying a new car.
À quel prix ? At what cost? (you could use this in a literal sense to talk about prices, or in a more abstract way to talk about about consequences)
(hors) de prix expensive
à tout prix at all costs; at any cost
à aucun prix not at any cost
à bas prix at a lower cost; reduced
Now we can look at the same word, but in a totally different context. In all of the following examples, we’re using prix to mean ‘prize’:
recevoir un prix to receive a prize
obtenir un prix to get a prize
Mon frère a reçu le premier prix ! My brother got first/top prize!
Qui a gagné le prix Booker cette année ? Who won the Booker prize this year?
Some further examples of famous uses of the word prix in this context include:
le prix Goncourt the Goncourt Prize (a famous literary prize)
le prix Nobel (de physique, biologie, etc.) the Nobel Prize (for physics, biology, etc.)
le prix du public; le prix du jury audience choice award; jury prize (usually two of the categories at Cannes Film Festival)
We hope you found this week’s blog insightful. While there’s no prize for coming back every week to learn more, we do strongly encourage it! See you next Monday.
Written by Holly Tarbet, freelance copywriter and editor.
All opinions expressed on this blog are those of the individual writers, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of Collins, or its parent company, HarperCollins.
