How do you translate "How (much)" when asking about non-numeric properties?
For example:
"How bright is that light?"
"How hard was the exam?"
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Related: http://spanish.stackexchange.com/q/1279/376 – MikMik Dec 17 '15 at 10:02
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You can use cuán:
How bright is that light? => ¿Cuán brillante es esa luz?
How hard was the exam? => ¿Cuán difícil fue el examen?
However, it is a formal word and sometimes affected. It will always be more normal to make a periphrasis:
¿Es muy brillante esa luz? ¿Cuánto brilla esa luz?
¿Fue muy difícil el examen? ¿Cómo estuvo el examen?
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Okay thanks. Is it wrong to say: ¿Cómo brillante es esa luz? And what about: ¿Qué tan difícil fue el examen? – quienquilo Jan 11 '15 at 00:48
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2The second one is wirght and the first one is worng, you can said instead: ¿Cómo de brillante es esa luz? – MaríaCC Jan 11 '15 at 01:38
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@MaríaCC cómo de brillante sounds agrammatical to me. Where are you from? – clinch Jan 11 '15 at 17:26
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@clinch I'm from Spain. "Qué tan" is sonds weird to me too, are latin? – MaríaCC Jan 11 '15 at 23:52
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@quienquilo I would say not, but these things tend to be regional. cuán is almost invariably in the formal registry/in the prestige dialect, in every other scenario, qué tan would be the way to go. – clinch Jan 11 '15 at 23:56
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@MaríaCC interesting! yes, I'm in Latin America. Didn't know cuán felt unnatural to Spaniards. Maybe other Spaniards should confirm that (since there's regional differences within Spain as well)! ^^ – clinch Jan 11 '15 at 23:57
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Cuán is not at all strange to me, in fact it seems to me that it is more correct accurate form. But informally I would say Cuánto de brillante es? – MaríaCC Jan 12 '15 at 01:16
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1@MaríaCC oops, i meant qué tan, my bad. I didn't know qué tan was weird in Spain. – clinch Jan 12 '15 at 01:58
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@I suppose that's because we never use "qué" to ask for quantities or characteristics. But surely it's only a matter of countries differences :P – MaríaCC Jan 12 '15 at 09:55