¿Cuánto cuesta renovar el pasaporte?

How much does it cost to renew the passport?

Breakdown of ¿Cuánto cuesta renovar el pasaporte?

• el pasaporte: the passport
• renovar: to renew
• cuánto: how much
• costar: to cost

Questions & Answers about ¿Cuánto cuesta renovar el pasaporte?

Why does Spanish use ¿ at the beginning and ? at the end?

Spanish punctuation marks questions with both an opening ¿ and a closing ? so the reader knows from the start that the sentence is a question. In writing, both are standard and expected: ¿Cuánto cuesta renovar el pasaporte?

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What does cuánto mean here, and why does it have an accent?

Cuánto means how much (amount/price) in this sentence. It has an accent mark because it’s an interrogative word (used in a question).
Compare:

• ¿Cuánto cuesta...? = How much does ... cost? (question → accent)
• No sé cuánto cuesta. = I don’t know how much it costs. (indirect question → still usually keeps the accent)
• Cuanto más, mejor. = The more, the better. (non-interrogative cuanto → no accent)

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Why is it cuesta and not costar?

Costar is the infinitive (to cost). Cuesta is the 3rd person singular present form:

• costar → cuesta = it costs / does it cost
  Because renovar el pasaporte is treated as a singular “thing/action” that has a price, Spanish uses cuesta (singular).

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What is the subject of cuesta in this sentence?

Grammatically, the subject is renovar el pasaporte (the action of renewing the passport). In Spanish, an infinitive phrase can function as a noun-like subject:

• Renovar el pasaporte cuesta X. = Renewing the passport costs X. In the question, it’s just flipped into question order:
• ¿Cuánto cuesta renovar el pasaporte?

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Why do we use the infinitive renovar (to renew) instead of a gerund like “renewing”?

Spanish commonly uses the infinitive where English uses -ing as a noun:

• Renovar = renewing (as an activity)
  So ¿Cuánto cuesta renovar el pasaporte? is literally How much does it cost to renew the passport?

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Can I say ¿Cuánto cuesta la renovación del pasaporte? instead?

Yes. That version uses a noun (la renovación) instead of the infinitive:

• ¿Cuánto cuesta renovar el pasaporte? = How much does it cost to renew the passport?
• ¿Cuánto cuesta la renovación del pasaporte? = How much does the passport renewal cost? Both are natural; the first is often more direct in everyday speech.

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Why is it el pasaporte and not mi pasaporte?

Spanish often uses the definite article (el/la) where English might use a possessive (my/your), especially when it’s obvious from context whose item it is:

• Quiero renovar el pasaporte. (normally understood as “my passport” in context) If you want to be explicit, mi pasaporte is also fine:
• ¿Cuánto cuesta renovar mi pasaporte?

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Is ¿Cuánto cuesta...? the most common way to ask the price, or can I use ¿Cuánto vale...?

Both exist, but they can feel slightly different:

• ¿Cuánto cuesta...? = very common for prices/fees (especially services, procedures, tickets, etc.)
• ¿Cuánto vale...? = also common, often for the value/price of an item
  For an administrative fee like a passport renewal, ¿Cuánto cuesta renovar el pasaporte? sounds especially natural.

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Where does the stress go, and how do I pronounce the tricky parts?

A Spain-focused guide (approximate):

• ¿CUÁN-to CUES-ta re-no-VAR el pa-sa-POR-te?
  Notes:
• cuesta is one syllable cluster cues- (like kwe
  • sta).
• In much of Spain, z/c (before e/i) sounds like th in thin, but here you don’t have that sound.
• renovar ends with stress on -var because it’s an infinitive ending in -ar.

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How would I change it if I were asking about passports in general (plural)?

You’d make pasaporte plural, and usually keep the rest the same:

• ¿Cuánto cuesta renovar los pasaportes? = How much does it cost to renew the passports? You can still use cuesta because the subject can still be the action (renovar los pasaportes). In practice, many speakers keep cuesta here; you may also hear plural agreement in some contexts, but singular is very common with infinitive subjects.

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How would I ask this more politely or in a more “official” way in Spain?

Common polite/official options:

• Perdone, ¿cuánto cuesta renovar el pasaporte? (Excuse me, how much does it cost…?)
• ¿Me puede decir cuánto cuesta renovar el pasaporte? (Can you tell me how much it costs…?)
• Quería saber cuánto cuesta renovar el pasaporte. (I wanted to know how much it costs…; polite/softened)