Dictionary / Japanese / How much is it?
How to Say "How much is it?" in Japanese
いくらですか
ikura desu ka
Literally: How much is it?
いくら
how much (money)
ですか
is it? (polite question)
Polite or casual
Politeおいくらですか (oikura desu ka)
Casualいくら？ (ikura?)
いくらですか is polite and fine in any shop, market or ticket office. おいくらですか sounds a little softer, and you will often hear it. With friends, いくら？ is normal. To point at something, add これは (kore wa), this: これはいくらですか, how much is this? Prices are written with 円 after the number, as in 500円, and read with Japanese numbers: 五百円 (gohyaku en). To ask the price of one item in a set, say これは一ついくらですか (kore wa hitotsu ikura desu ka), how much is one of these? At the till you will often hear the total said like this: 全部で三千円になります (zenbu de sanzen en ni narimasu), that comes to 3,000 yen.
Correct
いくらですか
What people say wrong
いくつですか
How many? or How old are you? Not a question about price.
The mistake to avoid. いくら (ikura) and いくつ (ikutsu) sound alike, and learners mix them up. いくら asks about an amount, most often money. いくつ asks how many things there are, and it is also used to ask someone's age, often as おいくつですか. So at the till, ask いくらですか. The answer comes in 円, which English writes as "yen" but Japanese says en: 千円 (sen en), 1,000 yen.
In context
すみません、これはいくらですか。
Sumimasen, kore wa ikura desu ka.
Excuse me, how much is this?
全部でいくらですか。
Zenbu de ikura desu ka.
How much is it altogether?
千二百円です。
Sen nihyaku en desu.
It is 1,200 yen.