Lesson 11. Question Words 얼마, 얼마나

In today’s lesson, we’re going to learn the usage of the words “얼마” and “얼마나”.

Both of them have the same meaning of “how much”, but the usage is different.

For example:

얼마예요? – How much is it?

저 얼마나 예뻐요? – How pretty am I?

나 얼마나 사랑해? – How much do you love me?

1. 얼마: asking about the price of something

From the context above, you might have noticed that we use “얼마” when you want to ask how much something is.

얼마 can be used with “이다” and “하다 “ to ask how much something costs.

얼마 + 이다/하다 = how much is ­sth

얼마예요?/얼마해요? – How much is it?

이거/저거 얼마예요? – How much is this/that?

사과 두 개 얼마예요? – How much are two apples?

이 옷 얼마예요? – How much are these clothes?

요즘 아이폰 얼마해요? – What is the price for iPhones these days?

2. 얼마나 + Adjective

얼마나 can be followed by adjectives and verbs. It also can be replaced by “얼만큼”.

얼마나 (얼만큼) + adjective

얼마나 (얼만큼) + verb

For example:

얼마나 예뻐요? – How pretty is it?

얼마나 비싸요? – How expensive is it?

얼마나 커요? – How big is it?

얼마나 작아요? – How small is it?

A: 저 얼만큼 예뻐요? – How pretty am I?
B: 아주 예뻐요. – Very pretty.
>꽃만큼 예뻐요.* – You’re as pretty as a flower.
>별로 안 예뻐요.** – You’re not that pretty.

*Noun만큼 + Adjective = As much Adjective as Noun

**별로 안 Adjective = Not that much Adjective

A: 제프는 키가 얼마나 커요? – How tall is Jeff?

B: 저만큼 커요. – He is tall as much as me.
>별로 안 커요. – He is not that tall.
> 170 (백칠십) cm (센치)예요. – He’s 170 cm.

A: 한국 여름은 얼마나 더워요? – How hot is Korean summer?

B: 엄청 더워요. – Very hot.
> 진짜 더워요. It is really hot.
> 별로 안 더워요. – It’s not that hot.
> 동남아시아만큼 더워요. – It’s as hot as in South-East Asia.

3. 얼마나 + (Adverb) + Verb

얼마나 can also be followed by a verb in the present, past, and future tense. 

숙제 얼마나 했어요? – How much homework have you finished?

영화 얼마나 봤어요? – How much of the movie have you finished?

Actually,  a more accurate way to put it would be that 얼마나 is followed by an adverb that modifies a verb, but the adverb is usually omitted. 

얼마나 + (adverb) + verb

e.g.
얼마나 (많이) 먹었어? – How much have you eaten? 

남자친구랑 얼마나 (오래) 만났어? – How long have you been dating your boyfriend?

공부를 얼마나 했어요? – depending on the context can mean both:

1. How much have you studied?
2. How long have you been studying?

But, if you want to be more specific, you can add the adverb “많이” to ask “how much” and the adverb “오래” to ask “how long”.

공부를 얼마나 많이 했어요? – How much have you studied? 

공부를 얼마나 오래 했어요? – How long have you been studying?

시험이 얼마나 (오래) 걸려요? – How long does the exam take?

A: 숙제를 얼마나 했어요? – How much homework did you do?

B: a) 다 했어요. – I finished it all.

b) 거의 다 했어요. – I almost finished it.

c) 많이 했어요. – I have finished a lot of it.

d) 얼마 안 했어요. – I haven’t finished much. = 별로 안 했어요. 

e) 하나도 안 했어요. – I haven’t don’t anything.

Let’s look at more examples:

커피 두 잔이 얼마예요? – How much are two cups of coffee?

이것들 얼마예요? Or
이거 전부(everything)/다 (all) 얼마예요? – How much are these?

A: 제프 씨는 한국어를 얼마나 잘해요? – How good is Jeff’s Korean?

B: a) 진짜 잘해요./엄청 잘해요./정말 잘해요./아주 잘해요. – It is really good.

b) 한국인만큼 잘해요. – He’s as good as a Korean.

c) 별로 안 잘해요. – It’s not that good.

d) 하나도 안 잘해요. – He is not good at all.

A: 부모님을 얼만큼 사랑해요? – How much do you love your parents?

B: a) 많이 사랑해요. – I love them a lot.

b) 하늘만큼 땅만큼 사랑해요. – I love them to the moon and back.

c) 별로 안 사랑해요. – I don’t love them that much. 

d) 하나도 안 사랑해요. – I don’t love them at all.

[Quick Summary]:

얼마 + 이다/하다 = how much is ­sth

얼마나 (얼만큼) + adjective

얼마나 + (adverb) + verb

* you can add the adverb “많이” to ask “how much” and the adverb “오래” to ask “how long”.

[Useful Expressions]:

Noun만큼 + Adjective = As much Adjective as Noun

별로 안 Adjective = Not that much Adjective

다 했어요. – I finished it all.

거의 다 했어요. – I almost finished it.

많이 했어요. – I have finished quite a lot of it.

얼마 안 했어요. – I haven’t finished much. = 별로 안 했어요. 

하나도 안 했어요. – I haven’t done anything.