How do you use Cuanto in a sentence?
Cuánto + noun in Spanish
To ask "How much" or "How many" of something in Spanish we use interrogative word "cuánto". Have a look at the following examples: ¿Cuánto café tenemos? How much coffee do we have?
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How Many
- There are 200,000 (two hundred thousand) books in the library.
- There are many books in the library.
- There are a lot of books in the library.
- There are fewer books in the library than in many other libraries.
Translation. As you can see from the chart, normally the singular forms translate to “how much” and cuantos or cuantas in Spanish mean “how many” in English.
Interrogative adjectives in Spanish are question words like qué (meaning which or what) and cuánto/cuánta/cuántos/cuántas (meaning how much/how many). Note that like all other Spanish question words, qué and cuánto have accents on them. ¿qué? (meaning which? or what?) doesn't change for the feminine and plural forms.
CUÁNTO, CUÁNTOS, CUÁNTA, CUÁNTAS are used when we want to know HOW MANY or HOW MUCH of something there is. These interrogatives (question words) are used for counting or measuring something.
Cuánto can be used in front of a verb to express surprise at how much someone is doing that action. In this specific use of cuánto, the other forms are not correct (cuánta, cuántos, cuántas). It would be incorrect to say: ¡Cuántos sabes, papá!
- 'How Many' We use 'how many' with countable nouns. example: How many days do you work?
- 'How Much' We use 'how much' with uncountable nouns. example: How much money do you have?
The usage of 'much' and 'many' depends on whether the noun it modifies is a count noun or a noncount noun (read about these types of nouns here). Use 'much' with noncount nouns and use 'many' with count nouns. In the example sentence, 'exercise' is a noncount noun so you should use 'much': How much exercise do you do?
Example Sentences
Noun He set a good example for the rest of us. She gave several examples to show that the program is effective.
All of the computers are currently in use.
When to use cuánto and cuántos?
To express surprise at how much of something there is in Spanish we use cuánto, cuánta, cuántos, cuántas in front of the noun, in the same way as in interrogative sentences.
[M] [T] Please say hello to your parents for me. [M] [T] She wanted him to say that he loved her. [M] [T] They say that a large dam will be built. [M] [T] Go say goodbye to them before they leave.
