A question of word order

Question

In the Wendy's ad, here on Spanishdict, is the question: "¿qué tan jugosa es ana?," which I'm guessing literally translates as: What so juicy is ana? This to my english ear seems extremely convoluted. To my inexperienced ear it would seem better phrased to say "¿Qué es tan jugosa ana? I would appreciate it if someone could give me the rules for the question being asked as it was.

Gracias por su ayuda,

Jim

Answer 1

"¿Qué tan...?" is a way of saying "How...?" For example: "¿Qué tan lejos queda la escuela? - "How far away is the school?" ... "¿Qué tan exigente es la profesora?" - "How demanding is the teacher?"

I see the ad to which you are referring, and what it is asking is "How juicy is Ana?" Exactly what sort of pun or humorous introduction this is, I cannot tell you, since I have not clicked on it.

Answer 2

What is your reason for thinking that the word order of other languages should parallel that of English? Do you, perhaps, think that English has the only natural word order? Perhaps, you believe that, because English is the best language or the only "natural" language, that all other languages should try to imitate it.

you need to grow up. my question shouldn't prompt your kind of paranoia - jgundy, Nov 27, 2011

Answer 3

This to my english ear seems extremely convoluted.

Not to worry; English to the Spanish ear sounds just as convoluted.

When learning non-native languages, comparing them to your own will always lead you astray.

Good answer! - faliron, Nov 25, 2011

Answer 4

You are right, but made a little mistake.

¿Qué tan jugosa es Ana?

EDIT:

The other possibility is "Qué jugosa que es/está Ana!"

yes, chileno, that was the question, but the word order would almost seem to be saying "what juicy is ana" - jgundy, Nov 18, 2011

No because "Que" can mean other things than "what" - ian-hill, Nov 20, 2011

"How" for example. - ian-hill, Nov 20, 2011

Answer 5

jgundy commented "...the word order would almost seem to be saying "what juicy is ana""

That could be said as:

que jugosa está Ana!

Now, you have to ck the place of the verb compared to that of the adjective.

And lastly, you are doing excellent in translating form Spanish to English, because English is your native language.

This way it will make you aware of how Spanish is written.

Please do not go beyond that and try to compare it to English, it will slow down your learning process.

Answer 6

English does have a quite "strict" word order, especially adjectives - stricter than is needed in Spanish I think - but that does not make the Spanish "wrong".