coûter

Coûter means to cost, used for prices (ça coûte vingt euros) and figuratively for effort, sacrifice, or consequence (ça lui a coûté son emploi, it cost him his job). It's a regular -er verb, but its meaning shifts naturally from money to any kind of cost.

• Ce billet coûte quarante euros. — This ticket costs forty euros.
• Son erreur lui a coûté sa réputation. — His mistake cost him his reputation.
• Il faut réussir, coûte que coûte. — We have to succeed, no matter what it takes.

Coûter is one of the verbs learners often want to turn passive by analogy with English phrasing ('the price is cost by...') — but French just uses coûter directly with the price as a straightforward object (ça coûte cher), no extra construction needed.

• expression Coûte que coûte — A centuries-old fixed expression meaning "at all costs" / "whatever it takes" — the Oxford English Dictionary traces its earliest attested use to a 1715 letter by Viscount Bolingbroke, and it remains common in French today.