Translation guide
This guide covers how to ask about quantity, price, degree, and frequency in Japanese. The most common word is いくら for price, and どのくらい or どれくらい for amount or degree. The choice depends on what you are asking about.
How much is this?
The speaker wants to know the cost of something.
The standard word for asking 'how much' in terms of price. Can be used with or without ですか.
How much is this?
How much is it altogether? (casual)
Polite version of いくら, often used in customer service or formal situations.
How much is it? (polite)
The speaker wants to know the amount of something (uncountable or countable).
General way to ask 'how much' or 'how many'. Works for both countable and uncountable things.
The speaker wants to know the intensity or level of something (e.g., pain, love, difficulty).
Used to ask about the degree of an adjective or verb. Often paired with ～か.
The speaker wants to know how often something happens.
Literally 'at what frequency', a clear way to ask 'how often'.
Use いくら only for price. Use どのくらい for quantity, degree, or time. Using いくら for non-price things sounds unnatural.
Incorrect for amount of water. Use どのくらい instead.
How much does it cost?
How much sugar do you need?
How much time does it take?
Similar to どのくらい, slightly more casual. Interchangeable in most contexts.
How much do you eat? (casual)
Emphasizes the extent or amount, often used in emotional or rhetorical questions.
How much longer do I have to wait?
How much does it hurt?
How much Japanese can you speak?
Formal or literary way to ask about degree. Often used in writing.
No matter how much effort you put in, sometimes it doesn't pay off.
How often do you exercise?
Casual way to ask 'how often', literally 'how much well'. Used with verbs.
How often do you watch movies?
いくら means 'how much money'. For 'how much' in other contexts, use どのくらい or どれくらい.
How much time do we have?