To ask how much or how many in Spanish, you use cuánto — a question word that, unusually for an interrogative, has four forms and agrees in gender and number with whatever is being counted.
The four forms
| Form | Meaning | Agrees with |
|---|---|---|
| cuánto | how much | masculine singular noun |
| cuánta | how much | feminine singular noun |
| cuántos | how many | masculine plural noun |
| cuántas | how many | feminine plural noun |
Think of cuánto and cuánta as the "how much" pair (used with uncountable nouns — water, money, time) and cuántos and cuántas as the "how many" pair (used with countable nouns — books, people, years).
Cuántos años tienes — the age question
The most universally useful cuánto question for a learner is asking someone's age. The literal translation is "how many years do you have?" but it functions exactly like English "how old are you?"
¿Cuántos años tienes?
How old are you?
¿Cuántos años tiene tu hermana?
How old is your sister?
Cuántos is masculine plural because it agrees with años.
Agreement examples
¿Cuánto dinero necesitas?
How much money do you need?
¿Cuánta leche quieres?
How much milk do you want?
¿Cuántos libros tienes en casa?
How many books do you have at home?
¿Cuántas personas vinieron a la reunión?
How many people came to the meeting?
Notice the pattern: cuánto + dinero (masculine singular), cuánta + leche (feminine singular), cuántos + libros (masculine plural), cuántas + personas (feminine plural).
Cuánto on its own — "how much?"
When there's no noun attached and you just want to ask "how much?" — typically in the context of price or amount — you use cuánto in its masculine singular default form.
¿Cuánto cuesta?
How much does it cost?
¿Cuánto pesa el paquete?
How much does the package weigh?
¿Cuánto te debo?
How much do I owe you?
In these cases, there's no specific noun to agree with, so cuánto stays in the masculine singular form by default.
¿Cuánto cuesta? and ¿cuánto es? are your two go-to phrases for asking about prices in Latin American markets, stores, and taxis. Practice them until they come out automatically.Cuánto as an adverb — "how much" modifying a verb
When cuánto modifies a verb — meaning "how much" as in "how much does it rain?" — it also stays in the invariable masculine singular form.
¿Cuánto te gustó la película?
How much did you like the movie?
¿Cuánto trabajas a la semana?
How much do you work per week?
In this use, cuánto acts as an adverb and doesn't agree with anything.
After prepositions
Like other question words, cuánto can follow a preposition. The agreement rules still apply.
¿En cuántas ciudades has vivido?
In how many cities have you lived?
¿A cuántos kilómetros está Lima?
How many kilometers away is Lima?
In indirect questions
Just like quién and qué, cuánto keeps its accent in indirect questions.
No sé cuánto cuesta.
I don't know how much it costs.
Dime cuántas personas vinieron.
Tell me how many people came.
Pregúntale cuántos años tiene.
Ask him how old he is.
Also used in exclamations
Cuánto doubles as an exclamatory word, meaning "how much!" or "how many!" with the same four forms. Used this way, it expresses surprise or strong emotion about quantity.
¡Cuánto trabajo tengo!
How much work I have!
¡Cuántas estrellas hay en el cielo!
How many stars there are in the sky!
This overlap between interrogative and exclamatory is a general Spanish pattern, and it's the topic of the next page. For now, just know that the accent stays, and the agreement rules are identical.
cuánto is the punctuation. The word itself, the accent, and the agreement are exactly the same in both uses.Common expressions
¿Hace cuánto llegaste?
How long ago did you arrive?
These idiomatic uses of cuánto are worth learning as fixed phrases. They come up constantly in daily conversation.
Related Topics
- Qué vs CuálA2 — Qué asks for definition; cuál asks for selection
- Quién and QuiénesA1 — Asking 'who' with quién (singular) and quiénes (plural)
- Exclamatory Pronouns (¡Qué!, ¡Cuánto!)A2 — The same forms used for questions can introduce exclamations