How does "Que tan" in "Que tan lejos" become "How" ?
How does "Que tan" in "Que tan lejos" become "How" in "How far"?
3 Answers
Because tan means much there and not as, or so.
Que tan lejos - how much farther. How far. Eh, some will have other things to say about it. But I like my explanation.
Hola Martillo!
Because of lack of proper punctuation, "How far" can be translated more than one way.
For example: We are still far from the city. How far? (Here you are asking about your actual distance from the city.)
Translation: Aún estamos lejos de la ciudad. ¿A qué distancia?
Another example, using a similar phrase: We are 20 kilometers away. How far! (This is an exclamatory phrase expressing your disgust for still being far away.)
Translation: Estamos a 20 kilómetros. ¡Qué tan lejos! (Note the accent on e when using que for exclamatory expressions.)
Edit: Removed this part: "Tan is just an adverb pertaining to lejos." Tan is indeed an adverb referring to lejos, but as Heidi said, it should not be there.
In Spain we do not use the tan here, actually, first time I saw this I marked it as wrong
Have a look at my flashcard sets on question words, how far, how much, how long etc...
Or this excellent set by Sandy
