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Question to Teacher: いくら / どれぐらい - How much / how long
Course 3 Lesson 1: Masumi and I (Dates and Times)

HLM

Post Date: 2021-12-29 12:03:57

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2021 Feb 27

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Am I right in understanding that どれぐらい (and どのぐらい, どのくらい) can mean both "how much" and "how long", but いくら can only mean "how much" and never "how long"?

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JFZ Teacher (Kanako)

Post Date: 2022-01-09 02:45:22

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いくら means “how much” and is used when the speaker does not know the exact quantity or price of something.

(Example sentences)

1. さいふにいくら、ありますか。(SAIFU NI IKURA ARIMASUKA)
= How much (money) do you have in your wallet?

2.たいじゅうは、いくらぐらいありますか。(TAIJUU WA IKURA GURAI ARIMASUKA)
= How much do you weigh?

You can use どれぐらい instead of いくら in above sentences. They are interchangeable.

いくら can also mean “how long”, but it is used infrequently.
For example;

3. いちにちにいくらべんきょうしますか (ICHI-NICHI NI IKURA BENKYOUSHIMASUKA)
= How long/how much do you study in a day?

Comparing いくら and どれぐらい, どれぐらい is what people use more often as the meaning of “how long”.

4. いちにちにどれぐらいべんきょうしますか (ICHI-NICHI NI DOREGURAI BENKYOUSHIMASUKA) ✔

You can change the question word to なんじかん (how many hours) or なんぷん(how many minutes) to make your question more specific.

Q: いちにちになんじかん、べんきょうしますか。(ICHINICHI NI NAN-JIKAN BENKYOUSHIMASUKA)
= How many hours do you study every day?

A: いちじかんぐらい、します。(ICHI-JIKAN GURAI, SHIMASU)
= I do (study) about one hour.

I hope this helps :)