How to say "too expensive" in Chinese

When To Use It

"too expensive" maps to 太贵了 (tài guì le), a casual shopping phrase for buying situations.

Use it while choosing products, asking about price, or reacting to a seller in a market or retail setting.

Practice it first exactly as written, then swap in your own people, places, or objects so it becomes part of your active speaking repertoire.

Tone And Delivery

The register is casual, so it sounds best with friends, peers, or relaxed service interactions rather than formal customer-service scripts.

Because this is marked beginner, you should aim to recognize it instantly and reuse it with your own names, nouns, locations, or numbers.

A good practice target is the example sentence 这个太贵了。 (zhège tài guì le.). Once that feels natural, shorten your pause and try it at conversation speed.

Practice Ideas

This phrase becomes more useful when you learn it as part of a mini-sequence. After saying it, a natural next step could be 多少钱？ (duō shǎo qián?).

A second nearby phrase to review is 可以便宜一点吗？ (kěyǐ piányi yìdiǎn ma?), which helps you stay in the same topic instead of translating from scratch again.

• Read the example “This is too expensive.” aloud, then replace one detail with your own information.
• Pair it with “How much is it?” next so your conversation does not stop after a single line.
• Match the phrase to your tone of voice: soft for polite requests, flatter and quicker for routine daily use.
• If you hear a slightly different version in the wild, compare the tone and context before treating it as interchangeable.