La botella de leche es pequeña –
the bottle of milk is small.
Sandra es tan guapa – Sandra is
so beautiful.
Muchos & muchas mean ‘a lot’
or ‘many’ & again are gender
specific.
Tanto/tanta & tantos/tantas are
clearly gender specific
They are also used in exactly
the same way as the English
translations, this time with
something countable ……. And
pocos & pocas are the opposite –
few.
Cuando eran niños tenían muchos
amigos - when they were children
they had many friends.
Los niños hacen tanto ruido
cuando juegan al fútbol en la calle
– The children make so much
noise when they play football in
the street.
¡Habían tantas manzanas en ese
árbol! There were so many apples
on that tree!
Francisco no es tan amable, que
tiene pocos amigos. – Francisco
isn’t so friendly, he has few friends.
Which brings us to tan, tanto/tanta
& tantos/tantas.
Tan can be used when comparing
things, in a similar way to más &
menos, with adjectives & adverbs,
but with como, rather than que.
María es tan alta como su
hermana. – María is as tall as her
sister.
Tan can also mean ‘so’
There are also suffixes (bits added
on to a word) which mean that it’s
bigger or smaller.
One example of a diminutivo
(diminutive – makes it smaller)
is ito/ita & an example of an
aumentativo (augmentative –
makes it bigger) is ón.