You stumble across a beautiful bottle of locally made olive oil on your travels through Spain. It would make the perfect gift for your foodie friend—if you can get it home without eating it all first. But there’s no price and after saying “good morning” to the shopkeeper and getting nothing more than a forced smile in reply, you’re fairly certain they don’t speak English.
Now what?
There are a couple of incredibly useful phrases that you can use here, and they apply whether you’re in Spain or Latin America.
Let’s look at how to ask, “how much?” and “how much does it cost?” in Spanish, as well as many variations and possible answers.
How to Say “How Much Does it Cost” in Spanish
¿Cuánto? is the most common way to say, “how much”, such as in phrases like “how much flour do I need for this recipe?” or “how much is it?”. Cuánto means “how much” on its own, but it can’t be used in a question without a verb, which is why we need to add cuesta when asking “how much does it cost?”
You can also use ¿Cuánto Vale? to ask, “how much does it cost?” but it’s not as common.
You can use variations of this word to ask about cost, quantity, age, and more, as it stands in for “how many” as well as “how much”. But it’s not quite that simple as there are a few variations to learn: Cuanto, Cuantos, Cuanta, and Cuantas.
The variation that you use will depend on the gender (masculine or feminine) and noun number (singular or plural):
- Cuanto = masculine singular noun
- Cuantos = masculine plural noun
- Cuanta = feminine singular noun
- Cuantas = feminine plural noun
For example, “coffee” or café ismasculine and multiple coffees (cafés) are masculine plural (cuantos). So, if you want to ask, “how many coffees have you consumed?” it would be ¿Cuántos cafés has consumido?
“Song” or canción is feminine and many songs is canciones. Therefore, if you want to ask, “how many songs have you sung today?” it would be ¿Cuántas canciones has cantado hoy?
Incidentally, we also use this word in the common question, “How old are you?” which translates as ¿cuántos años tienes? That’s because the literal translation for this phrase is something like “how many years do you have?”.
Using ¿Cuánto Cuesta and¿Cuánto Vale? in Sentences
Need a few examples of how the aforementioned Spanish words can be used in a sentence? Check out these sentences and their translations:
- How much is a hotel in London? – ¿Cuánto cuesta un hotel en Londres?
- How much flour do I need? – ¿Cuánta harina necesito?
- How many Spanish words do you know? – ¿Cuántas palabras en español sabes?
- How much do you weigh? – ¿Cuánto pesas?
- How much does this wallet cost? – ¿Cuánto cuesta esta billetera?
- How much milk do I need? – ¿Cuánta leche necesito?
- How much money does this cost? – ¿Cuánto dinero cuesta esto?
- How many are there? – ¿Cuántos hay?
- How much do I owe you? – ¿Cuánto te debo?
- How much is the least you will accept? – Cuánto es el menos que aceptas
Answers to ¿Cuánto Cuesta? and ¿Cuánto Vale? In Spanish
If your Spanish is limited then you’re probably the one asking these questions, not answering them. Still, it’s good to know how they might be answered.
As discussed in other blogs, Spanish is a phonetic language, which means you can look at a word and understand how it is spoken. It also means that you can hear a word and have a good idea of how it is written. That concept is a little alien to English speakers, but it makes learning Spanish so much easier.
- You don’t pay anything – No pagas nada.
- It’s free – Es gratis.
- It costs 100 dollars – Cuesta 100 dólares.
- It is very big – Es muy grande.
- You need a lot of flour – Necesitas mucha harina.
- You don’t need much flour – No necesitas mucha harina.
- I speak very good Spanish and know other languages – Hablo muy bien español y se otros idiomas.
- I speak a little Spanish and one other language – Hablo un poco de español y otro idioma.
“Big” and “Small” Spanish Words
We’ve covered some of the main replies to the question of “how much” in Spanish, but what if you’re asked how big or small something is? What if you want to get specific and say that something is “considerable” or “immense”.
Check out these related words to spice up your Spanish vocabulary:
| English Translation | Spanish Word | Pronunciation |
| Wide | Amplio | Am-plio |
| Considerable | Considerable | Con-sid-er-a-ble |
| Drastic | Drastico | Dra-sti-co |
| Spacious | Espacioso | es-pa-cio-so |
| Vast | Extenso | ex-ten-so |
| Large | Gran | Gran |
| Overgrown | Grandullon | Gran-du-llon |
| Huge | Ingente | In-gen-te |
| Immense | Inmenso | In-men-so |
| Massive | Masivo | Ma-si-vo |
| Bigger | Mayor | Ma-yor |
| Monumental | Monumental | Mo-nu-men-tal |
| Large | Numeroso | Nu-me-ro-so |
| Substantive | Sustantivo | Sus-tan-ti-vo |
| Tremendous | Tremendo | Tre-men-do |
| Bulky | Voluminoso | Vo-lu-mi-no-so |
| Vast | Amplisimo | Am-pli-si-mo |
| Tremendous | Bestial | Bes-tial |
| Colossal | Colosal | Co-lo-sal |
| Large | Cuantioso | Cuan-tio-so |
| Too big | Demasiado grande | De-ma-sia-do gran-de |
| Colossal | Descomunal | Des-co-mu-nal |
| Dilated | Dilatado | Di-la-ta-do |
| Enormous | Enorme | E-nor-me |
| Well-built | Fornido | For-ni-do |
| Giant | Gigante | Gi-gan-te |
| Loose | Guango | Guan-go |
| Roomy | Holgado | Hol-ga-do |
| Considerable | Importante | Im-por-tan-te |
| Unusual | Inusitado | In-u-si-ta-do |
| Bigger | Mas grande | Mas gran-de |
| Very big | Muy grande | Muy gran-de |
| Excessively large | Sobredimensionado | So-bre-di-men-sio-na-da |
| Vast | Vasto | Vas-to |
| Small | Chico | Chi-co |
| Tiny | Chiquitin | Chi-qui-tin |
| tiny | Chiquito | Chi-qui-to |
| Small | Menudo | Me-nu-do |
| Small | Pequeno | Pe-que-no |
| Tight | Apretado | A-pre-ta-do |
| Tight | Cenido | Ce-ni-do |
| Tiny | Chiqutito | Chi-qui-ti-to |
| Compact | Compacto | Com-pac-to |
| Short | Corto | Cor-to |
| Thin | Delgado | Del-ga-do |
| Tiny | Diminuto | Di-mi-nu-to |
| Dwarf | Enano | E-na-no |
| Narrow | Estrecho | Es-tre-cho |
| Tiny | Minusculo | Mi-nus-cu-lo |
| Too Small | Muy chiquito | Muy Chi-qui-to |
| Very Small | Muy Pequeno | Muy Pe-que-no |
| Tiny | Pequeñito | Pe-que-ni-to |
| Tight | Prieto | Prie-to |
| Small | Reducido | Re-du-ci-do |
Etymology Check
As always, we like to finish off with some fascinating etymological facts, and there is no shortage of these here.
Take cuánto as an example. It comes from the Latin quantus, which also gave birth to English words like “quota” and “quote”, as well as “quantity” and “quantum”. Similar words are used in several other romance languages, including Italian (quanto) and French (quant).
As for vale, used in the question ¿Cuánto Vale?, it comes from the Old French val meaning “valley”.