Learn Spanish (Latin America): ¿Cuántos dólares cuesta la computadora nueva? - How many dollars does the new computer cost?

Cuántos is an interrogative adjective that means 'how many', and it must match the noun it describes in both gender and number. Because dólar is a masculine word and we are asking about more than one, we use the masculine plural form: cuántos dólares.

If dólares is plural, why is the verb cuesta singular instead of the plural cuestan?

The verb must match the subject of the sentence doing the action. Here, the subject is la computadora nueva (the new computer), which is singular. You can think of the underlying sentence structure as 'The new computer costs how many dollars?' so we use the singular verb cuesta.

Why does dólares have an accent mark?

The singular word is dólar. When we make it plural by adding -es, we add an extra spoken syllable. To keep the natural voice stress on that exact same 'o' sound as in the singular form, Spanish requires us to add a written accent mark: dólares.

Why is the order computadora nueva instead of nueva computadora?