HOW ENGLISH AND SPANISH ASK: HOW TALL?

Languages solve communication problems in different ways. One area where English is remarkably efficient is in asking about degrees. Once we know that a quality exists, we can simply place how before the corresponding adjective or adverb to ask about its extent: How expensive was the car? How tall is Bob? How far is Barcelona from Madrid? How difficult was the exam? The same pattern works with an enormous range of adjectives, making it both simple and highly productive.

Spanish, however, does not seem to have a single, equally general construction. Depending on the country, one may hear questions such as ¿Qué tan lejos está...?, ¿Qué tan rico es tu novio?, or the more formal ¿Cuán lejos está...? These are perfectly natural in some varieties of Spanish but uncommon or even odd in others. Rather than relying on one universal pattern, Spanish tends to express the same ideas through different constructions.

For example, instead of asking How far is Barcelona from Madrid?, many speakers would simply ask ¿A qué distancia está Barcelona de Madrid? Instead of How expensive was the dinner?, they might ask ¿Cuánto costó la cena? or ¿Fue muy cara la cena? Likewise, How difficult was the exam? Often becomes ¿Fue muy difícil el examen? or ¿Qué dificultad tuvo el examen?, depending on the context and the speaker. How tall are you presents no problem: "¿Cuánto mides?"

What strikes me is that these Spanish alternatives often reformulate the question rather than asking directly for a property's degree. English appears to possess a single, elegant device—how followed by an adjective or adverb. In contrast, Spanish distributes the same meanings among several different expressions, none of which seems to serve as a universal equivalent.

Have I overlooked a general Spanish solution to this apparent gap? If there is one, I would be delighted to hear about it.