Meaning of ¨en cuanto...¨

Question

Hi all,

I am not for sure what the ¨en cuanto¨ in the below, sent to me by a customer who is a native speaker of Spanish, means.

> en cuanto me consigues una suspensión trasera

1) Should it really be ¨en cuánto¨?

2) Is this just a new (to me) way of saying ¨Cuánto cuesta¨?

Thanks for any insight

Gracias antemano.

Answer 1

Actually, the context you gave helps clarify the meaning. To me it looks like a question without "signos de interrogación". At first glance I thought it meant "as soon as", but two things suggest that this is not correct. First of all, if this were the the case "conseguir" would be in the subjunctive, "consigas", since you are talking about something that is pending. Also, there would have to be some sort of a second clause. For example:

"Hola Roger. En cuanto me consigas una suspensión trasera..., avísame"

In this case I would definitely say it means "how much"

Thanks much pescador! - rogspax, Oct 10, 2013

Answer 2

First of all, I want to tell you I signed up in this site to watch the pretty girl speaking spanish, but my native language is spanish.

Now, remember that you must interpret rather than translate if you really want to understand spanish. In this case, this expresion "en cuánto" (with the little mark above the "a") means how much would it coust.

Some examples: ¿En cuánto crees que está esta casa? How much do you think this house costs?

En cuánto me sale arreglar mi carro? How much does it cost to fix my car?

"En cuanto" means "as soon as" when you don´t have the little mark above the "a"

And there you go.

And how do you adjust for people who don't always type or spell correctly? Its had to know if the tilde was accidently forgotten. - gringojrf, Oct 9, 2013

The meaning is always implicit in the context. For instance, "en cuanto crees que esta esta casa" according to google is "think about this this house", and that sentece doesn´t make any sense. - gaboeremita, Oct 9, 2013

Thanks very much gaboeremita. I really liked your answer, thought gringo correctly anticipated a question in my mind. Many native writers are sloppy with the tildes, because for them, context is enough. It is not always for us. Still, very helpful. Thx! - rogspax, Oct 10, 2013

Answer 3

en cuanto = as soon as

Thanks Rey! - rogspax, Oct 10, 2013

your welcome - Rey_Mysterio, Oct 10, 2013

Answer 4

Hi Roger, I've done a little research and most of it comes up as 'as soon as'. Could he be telling you to let him know as soon as you can get him a new rear suspension for the 2011 Suzuki?

Very possible, thanks. I guess I´m just going to dig up some price and availability data and write back with both. Cover my bets. - rogspax, Oct 9, 2013

Answer 5

Hi Guys, and thanks for the answers so far.

I don´t really have much more context (just some more modifiers of ¨la suspensión¨ but I´ll paste it in here anyway.) The below is the rest of the sentence.

Hola roger en cuanto me consigues una suspensión trasera ohlins nueva para una suzuki Gsxr 600 modelo 2011

I still cant figure out if this is a question about cost, or delivery time. I.e. How soon, or how much?

Any ideas anyone?

He is asking about price - 005faa61, Oct 9, 2013

Ask him to clarify, time or money. - gringojrf, Oct 9, 2013

Answer 6

It means.... As soon as......

Answer 7

en cuanto me consigues una suspensión trasera

If this a question, then you are right: ¨¿en cuánto .......?¨ No, it´s not a new way to say "how much?" - it´s very common.

If it´s not a question, then maybe it is "en cuanto a" with some words missing. It´s hard to know without more context.