"How bad was his stomachache?"

Question

Could you say, "¿Cuán mal fue el dolor de estómago?"

Answer 1

Literal translation is ¿Qué tan/cuán mal estaba de su estómago?

I think you can get many ways of saying it. I'd say ¿Qué tan mal se sentía del estómago?

Answer 2

Oshnaj gave you a native answer. Here are some of my observations to help you understand what he is telling you and why:

Cuán and Qué tan

I normally think of cuán as more formal, literary and qué tan as informal, normal speech. Either can be used depending on how you want to sound.

Estar vs. ser and mal vs. malo:

Mal is an adverb- poorly. Malo an adjective- bad.

Look at the opposite-When you you say Estoy bien you are say I am (doing) well, but you do not say es bien- you say es bueno- It is good, because with ser it is an adjective. You cannot say el dolor es mal (Pain is badly). You have to say el dolor es malo (Pain is bad).

Estar mal- literally to be doing poorly, is commonly used for to be sick.

He adds the de (from) because mal is not an adjective applying to el dolor, but rather is used an adverb modifying the verb:

How poorly was he doing from his stomach. How sick was he from his stomach.

Changing to se sentía makes it feeling instead of doing in the above sentence: How poorly was he feeling from the stomach.

Fuerte could be a good adjective in place of malo if you want to be more literal and use ser but be precise to the meaning of what you meant by malo.

So I might have said "¿Qué tan fuerte fue/era su dolor de estómago?" How strong was his stomachache.

I would be interested in a native opinion on that sentence.

Answer 3

That is a correct way to say "How bad was his stomachache". Always try to use the translator before asking this on the Q&A forums. The translator in spanishdict is a top notch one.