cuántos hermanos tienes
/kwantos eɾmanos tjenes/from spelling rules
In Spanish, "how many siblings you have" is expressed as cuántos hermanos tienes.
This phrase is used to ask someone about the number of brothers and sisters they have. While the word hermano means brother and hermana means sister, the plural form hermanos is used to refer to siblings in general, including a mix of brothers and sisters.
What does it mean word for word?
The word hermanos literally means "brothers", but it functions as the gender-neutral term for "siblings" in this context.
Which one should you use?
While hermanos is the standard way to ask about siblings, you should use the feminine form hermanas if you specifically know that the person only has sisters.
How does it change in a sentence?
When writing this as a question, Spanish typically uses an opening inverted question mark at the beginning of the sentence: ¿Cuántos hermanos tienes? To address someone using the formal "you", you should change the verb from tienes to tiene to form cuántos hermanos tiene.
What mistakes should you avoid?
English speakers sometimes forget that hermanos serves as the gender-neutral plural for siblings.
Did you know?
- In some regions, you might hear cuántos hermanos sois, which uses the verb 'to be' instead of 'to have' to ask about the composition of the sibling group.
- The term hermano is often used in street slang to address total strangers in a friendly or casual manner.
- When answering ¿Cuántos hermanos tienes?, many Spanish speakers include half-siblings and step-siblings without using specific modifiers.
Examples in context
- ¿Cuántos hermanos tienes?How many siblings do you have?
- No sé cuántos hermanos tienes.I don't know how many siblings you have.
- Dime cuántos hermanos tienes en total.Tell me how many siblings you have in total.
Example conversation
María and Javier are getting to know each other at a party.
- María¿Cuántos hermanos tienes, Javier?How many siblings do you have, Javier?
- JavierTengo dos hermanos, ¿y tú?I have two siblings, and you?
- MaríaSolo tengo una hermana.I only have one sister.
- Javier¡Qué bien!That's nice!
Sources
- IPA marked “from spelling rules” is derived from standard Spanish spelling, where Wiktionary gives none.
