Breakdown of ¿Cuánto tiempo tardan en mejorar su acento?
en
in / on / at
cuánto
how much / how many
su
his/her/its/their/your (formal)
el tiempo
the time
mejorar
to improve
tardar
to take time
el acento
the accent
Questions & Answers about ¿Cuánto tiempo tardan en mejorar su acento?
How does the tardar + en structure work when asking a question?
The standard formula is tardar + [time] + en + [infinitive]. Because you are asking about the time, the [time] part moves to the beginning as the question word Cuánto tiempo. The rest of the formula stays the same: the verb tardan, followed by en, followed by the infinitive mejorar.
Why is there an en before mejorar?
In English, you say that you take time to do something. But in Spanish, the verb tardar specifically requires the preposition en before the action. You can think of it as literally meaning "How much time do they delay in improving their accent?"
Could this sentence also mean "How much time do you all take to improve your accent?"
Can I use the verb tomar instead of tardar to say "take time"?
Yes, using tomar to talk about taking time is very common in Latin America. However, the grammar changes. Instead of the tardar formula, you would use an indirect object pronoun and drop the en, like this: ¿Cuánto tiempo les toma mejorar su acento?
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