Breakdown of ¿Qué tan lejos está la exhibición?
estar
to be (location/state)
lejos
far
qué
what
tan
as / so
la
the (feminine)
la exhibición
the exhibition
Questions & Answers about ¿Qué tan lejos está la exhibición?
Why do we use qué tan here instead of just cómo to say 'how far'?
When asking about the degree of something (how far, how big, how difficult), Latin American Spanish uses qué tan followed by an adjective or adverb. You cannot use cómo for this; cómo asks 'in what way' or 'by what means,' not 'to what extent.' Here, qué tan combines with the adverb lejos to mean 'how far.'
I have seen cuán used to mean 'how' before an adjective. Could I say ¿Cuán lejos está...?
Yes, cuán means the exact same thing as qué tan and is grammatically correct. However, cuán sounds very formal or literary. In everyday spoken Latin American Spanish, people overwhelmingly prefer qué tan to ask about degree.
Why does this sentence use está instead of es? Isn't an exhibition an event?
That is a great catch! It is true that events (like a concert or a party) use ser for their location, as in ¿Dónde es la fiesta?. However, an exhibición is usually treated as a physical installation or a collection of objects in a space, rather than a strictly time-bound occurrence. Because you are asking about the physical whereabouts of those objects, estar is used.
Is there another common way to ask 'how far' besides using qué tan lejos?
Yes, you will also frequently hear ¿A qué distancia está...? (At what distance is...?). Both qué tan lejos and a qué distancia are perfectly natural and interchangeable ways to ask about distance in everyday conversation.
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