Wednesday, 15 April 2015

How Much Rope Do You Want?

Introduction


This post is about lengths in Spanish in general, and fractions/ factors of a metre in particular.





SCENARIO


Imagine you are at your local hardware store where you are trying to buy some rope.

After exchanging the customary greetings, shop assistant says to you: how much rope do you want?

In Spanish, the merchant could choose to be less formal and say:
¿Cuánta cuerda quieres?

In Spanish, the merchant could choose to be more formal and say:
¿Cuánta cuerda quiere?


OUR TIP

Answering the question should be quite straightforward. You may need to be careful with the units of length to make sure that you get the correct amount of rope. The notes below* should help you make sure of that.



With that in mind, you could say:
  • Quería un rollo de cuerda (I want a roll of rope)
  • Quería medio metro de cuerda (I want half a metre of rope)
  • Quería un metro de cuerda (I want a metre of rope)
  • Quería un metro y medio de cuerda (I want one and a half metres of rope)
  • Quería diez metros de cuerda (I want ten metres of rope)

Now you should practise answering the question:
¿Cuánta cuerda quieres?

*See some commonly used length in Spanish below

*Spanish Lengths

Some expressions of length commonly used in Spanish are shown below:


Milímetros
Centímetros
Metros
cien milímetros
diez centímetros
100mm
10cm


doscientos milímetros
veinte centímetros
200mm
20cm


trescientos milímetros
treinta centímetros
300mm
30cm


cuatrocientos milímetros
cuarenta centímetros
400mm
40cm


seiscientos milímetros
sesenta centímetros
600mm
60cm


setecientos milímetros
setenta centímetros
700mm
70cm


ochocientos milímetros
ochenta centímetros
800mm
80cm


novecientos milímetros
noventa centímetros
900mm
90cm


mil milímetros
cien centímetros
un metro
1,000mm
100cm
1m

Note
Approximate relationships to some commonly used UK & US units of length are shown below:


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