70 phrases faciles de français pour débutants
A1 French listening practice · French · Curated for beginners
What does “bon marché” mean in French?
C’est bon marché means “it’s cheap.” Marché here is an old sense of the word — the price, not the marketplace — because the phrase is short for à bon marché, “at a good price.” That history is why it refuses to agree with anything: des chaussures bon marché, never bonnes marchés. Its comparative is meilleur marché, though in everyday speech people usually just say moins cher.
The phrase is old enough to have named a shop: the Paris department store Le Bon Marché, opened in the nineteenth century, is simply “the good price” as a sign over a door. It has never lost that plain commercial meaning, which is why the store’s name reads to French speakers less like a brand than like a promise.