Now we will start a lesson on the question word "چه قدر", which means how
much. There's one point about for the form you
should write. This is the right way to write "چه قدر". A combination of
what and much. Ao "what much," kinda. But you will see in
your book or in other writings that some people write it like this, just in one
word. Here, I have written it in two words, but some people write it in one
word. Both of them are correct. But this one is more standard and nowadays
it's recommended to write it like this. So "چقدر" means how much. Let's look at
some examples:
چقدر نان داری؟
How much bread do you have? So we put "چقدر" right behind
the noun that we want to ask about. You know the amount or the size of
something. So it's "چقدر نان داری؟" and as you can se, the stress is
on "چقدر". This is a falling intonation and the
stress is on "چقدر". Another example:
چقدر وقت داشتند؟
hHow much time did they have?
So again, the answer is always, you know, just replacing this part. For
example, if you want to answer this question,
چقدر وقت داشتند؟
دو ساعت وقت داشتند.
You can see that "چقدر" was replaced by "دو ساعت".
The answer to:
چقدر نان داری؟
I can say:
دو کیلو نان دارم.
The "دو کیلو" came in the place of "چقدر".
Another usage of "چقدر" is when you are surprised of something.
So it's not a question. But it shows that you are
amazed by something. For example, look at the same example:
If we want to read this example like a question, you should put the stress
on "چقدر".
چقدر غذا می خوری!
A falling intonation.
چقدر غذا می خوری!
So it will be a question. But sometimes you hear that the stress
is not on "چقدر", but on "غذا می خوری" and it's not a question. You see
someone is eating and then you get surprised by how much he or she eats. So
we say "چقدر غذا می خوری" and the stress is on this part. And it's not a question.
You are just showing your surprise. And "چقدر غذا می خوری" is a question.
The stress is in fact on "غذا می خوری".
Another important thing about "چقدر" is that even though it means
how much, sometimes it's used in the meaning of how many. It's not that common,
but sometimes it's used and it's not wrong. For example, you say
چقدر کتاب داری؟
We have "چقدر" here because "کتاب" is
a countable noun. It's "how many books do you have?"
But it's not wrong and it's used. But the main meaning is "how much."
So the points about "چقدر" is that it comes right before the noun that you
want to specify, in terms of its amount and size.
چقدر نان داری؟
And the answer is just coming again in the place
of the question word.
چقدر وقت داشتند؟ دو ساعت وقت داشتند.
The answer comes in the place of "چقدر". Another usage of "چقدر" was to be
the sign of surprise, not as a question word. So in that case, the
stress goes on the second part of the sentence, and you have a rising intonation:
چقدر غذا می خوری!
The last point about "چقدر" is
that sometimes it's used in the meaning of how many.