The idiom 'cost a pretty penny' means that something is expensive. This video explains the meaning and use of the idiom 'cost a pretty penny' in English. We explain how to use it with some easy examples to help you learn this idiom so you can use it in spoken and Business English.
If something is said to ‘cost a pretty penny’, it is presumed to be expensive (it costs a lot of money). This isn’t usually in the present tense (this costs a pretty penny); instead, you are more likely to hear it used in the past or future tenses. You might hear someone say that something ‘must have cost a pretty penny’, or that something ‘is likely to cost a pretty penny’ or ‘will cost a pretty penny’.