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Spanish - How big/tall/long/etc. is it? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| kaizen Groupie Canada Joined 4958 days ago 48 posts - 52 votes  Studies: French | Message 1 of 6 27 June 2015 at 11:03pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm currently working through Pimsleur Level 3, and I just finished Unit 28. In it, they use
¿Qué tan grande es? and ¿Qué tan grandes son? for ¨How big is it?" and "How big are they?" respectively. This is quite a common structure in English, and so I'm wondering if this is commonly used for this and other similar type questions, or if there's a more common alternative. A couple of random made-up examples in English: How tall is it? (e.g your friend just visited the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.) How long is it? (e.g. talking about the Amazon River) How big is it? (e.g. asking a waitress about a pizza on a menu) How heavy are they? (e.g. asking about blue whales) So is there a common structure that would be used for all of these types of questions, or are there different structures depending on the question? Thanks for any thoughts 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| 1e4e6 Octoglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4291 days ago 1013 posts - 1588 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish, Italian Studies: German, Danish, Russian, Catalan | Message 2 of 6 28 June 2015 at 2:04am | IP Logged | ||
"How tall is it", when I think that you are asking for a specific height, like precise in metres or something, is «¿Cual es la altura de [edificio]?». There are regional differences here so it depends sometimes. Some also use what sounds to me incorrect technically, «¿Cómo alto es?», but in Latin America I have heard «¿Qué tal alto es?» which sounds more correct than the former. "How long is it" like a snake or salamander or a national border has a couple optons, like «¿Cuán largo es?» or «¿Cómo de largo es?». «¿Qué tal largo es...?» is also possible, but it refers usually not to geography but how long is for example, a notebook. "How big is it" as «¿Cuán grande es?» sounds more philosophic or abstract so in this case «¿De qué tamaño es la pizza?» is more literal. "How much does [something] weigh?" is fairly simple and ubiquitous, «¿Cuánto pesa?» 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| anamsc2 Tetraglot Groupie United States Joined 4560 days ago 85 posts - 186 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Catalan, German Studies: French | Message 3 of 6 28 June 2015 at 12:40pm | IP Logged | ||
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In general, you can use:
-¿Cómo es de [adj]? (in Spain) -¿Qué tan [adj] es? (in Latin America) -¿Cuán [adj] es? (I think mostly in Argentina) But like 1e4e6 indicated, there's usually other ways to ask the question. For example, to ask how tall, you can say "cuánto mide". I've never heard "qué tal [adj]", but maybe it's regional or maybe that was just a typo. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| caam_imt Triglot Senior Member Mexico Joined 4863 days ago 232 posts - 357 votes Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC2, Finnish Studies: German, Swedish | Message 4 of 6 28 June 2015 at 2:30pm | IP Logged | ||
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I would say:
How tall is it? (e.g your friend just visited the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.) ¿qué tan alto/grande es el edificio? How long is it? (e.g. talking about the Amazon River) ¿qué tan largo es el río? How big is it? (e.g. asking a waitress about a pizza on a menu) ¿cómo de grande es la pizza? ¿qué tan grande es la pizza? How heavy are they? (e.g. asking about blue whales) ¿qué tan pesadas son las ballenas azules? 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| kaizen Groupie Canada Joined 4958 days ago 48 posts - 52 votes Studies: French | Message 5 of 6 09 July 2015 at 6:32pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks to all of you for your replies. It seems that there are several ways to do it, depending on what exactly you're talking about (and what area of the Spanish-speaking world you're in).
I think for now, I'll just stick with ¿Qué tan [adj] es/son? and as my level improves I can fine-tune it and add other expressions. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6598 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 6 of 6 09 July 2015 at 8:24pm | IP Logged | ||
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Well actually that's a good opportunity to understand the Spanish logic. Just remember that using adjectives here is less straightforward than in English, so think of whether the same thing can be expressed with a noun/verb.
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