How to use the word "tan "

Question

what i know is that "tan + adjective"? like: tan alto , tan Delgado. but i saw a sentence like:

¿Una persona que viene de un lugar tan frío, tan al norte, tan en los confines del mundo?

So i am quite puzzled about how to use the "tan" : tan al norte, tan a su gusto etc.

Answer 1

Tan basically means so in the sense of so much.

Tan al norte = so much to the north (so far north)

Tan a su gusto = so much to his liking.

It means so so/much but sometimes you can't make a literal, word for word translation.