How to say "how long"

Question

hola!

Tengo un pregunta sencilla

Yo se que decir "how long...?" se puede usar "cuanto tiempo...? "

pero si quiero decir algo como:

• how long is the essay?

• how long is the email?

common sense tells me to use something like "como largo...."

just want some clarification please and other options, thank you.

Answer 1

how long is the essay? ...... ¿Qué tan largo es el ensayo?

When talking about time, ie "How long will it take?" ..... "¿Cuánto tiempo durará?" or just "¿Cuanto durará?" if the context is known.

can you explain the use of TAN here? from my understanding it is similar to the words: so, such, as. But i get the feeling that here it plays a different role. - 0042fe78, Dec 29, 2012

You are right, however there are other uses for "tan" as well. In this case it means "how." - 005faa61, Dec 30, 2012

Answer 2

How long is the essay? ¿Cuán largo es el ensayo? No need to use tan.

How long is the email? ¿Cuán largo es el email?

We normally do not ask this question in Spanish. We say ¿El ensayo es muy largo? or ¿De cuántas páginas es tu ensayo? or ¿Cuántas páginas tiene tu ensayo?

For emails we'd say: ¿Es un email muy largo? ¿De cuántas líneas?

thanks for the input. I was looking for the common way to ask "how long" something is when we are talking about quantity and not time. It was bugging me for a while haha. - 0042fe78, Dec 30, 2012