The core pattern: 多 plus adjective

To ask how + adjective in Mandarin, put 多 (duō) directly in front of the adjective. There is no extra question word, no inversion, no particle required. The sentence keeps normal word order and 多 + adjective simply sits where the measurement would go.

• 你多高？(nǐ duō gāo) - how tall are you?
• 这条路多长？(zhè tiáo lù duō cháng) - how long is this road?
• 他多大？(tā duō dà) - how old is he? (or how big?, depending on context)
• 你家离这儿多远？(nǐ jiā lí zhèr duō yuǎn) - how far is your home from here?

Note that 多 here is not the 多 meaning "many" or "much". It is a degree adverb meaning roughly "to what extent". The adjective behaves as a stative verb (no 是 needed, no 很 needed), exactly as it does in a plain statement - see adjectives as stative verbs. You are asking "you, to what extent tall?" and the structure is as compact as that sounds.

Which adjectives take 多: always the large pole

This is the rule that catches learners and almost no textbook states plainly. The adjective after 多 must be the positive or large end of the scale, not its opposite. You ask how + big, never how + small, regardless of the real answer.

So even when asking a child's age you say 你多大？(nǐ duō dà), literally "how big", and even when the road is plainly short you still ask 多长 (how long), not 多短. The large-pole adjective is the unmarked, neutral member of the pair - it names the dimension itself, while the small-pole word carries a judgement. 多矮 (duō ǎi) is not ungrammatical, but it presupposes the person is short and is heard as loaded or sarcastic, the way "how short are you?" lands oddly in English too. Default to the large pole every time. This is the same markedness logic that governs which adjective heads a comparison - see comparatives with 比.

Answering: the reply slots straight in

The neatest feature of this pattern: the answer goes exactly where 多 + adjective sat. You remove 多, the adjective often stays as a tag at the end, and the measurement fills the gap.

• Q: 你多高？(nǐ duō gāo) - how tall are you? A: 我一米八。(wǒ yì mǐ bā) - I'm one metre eighty.
• Q: 这条路多长？(zhè tiáo lù duō cháng) - how long is this road? A: 这条路三公里长。(zhè tiáo lù sān gōng lǐ cháng) - this road is three kilometres long.
• Q: 他多大？(tā duō dà) - how old is he? A: 他二十五岁。(tā èr shí wǔ suì) - he's twenty-five.
• Q: 这个箱子多重？(zhè ge xiāng zi duō zhòng) - how heavy is this box? A: 这个箱子二十公斤重。(zhè ge xiāng zi èr shí gōng jīn zhòng) - this box weighs twenty kilos.

The adjective frequently reappears after the figure (三公里长, 二十公斤重) to confirm which dimension is being measured, though for height and age it is usually dropped because the unit already makes it clear (一米八 can only be height; 二十五岁 can only be age). No verb is added - the number-plus-measure phrase behaves as the predicate on its own, the same way the adjective did in the question. For how the numbers and units themselves are built, see numbers, time and dates.

有多 for emphasis and exclamation

Insert 有 (yǒu) before 多 and the structure shifts from a neutral question to an emphatic or exclamatory one: 有多 + adjective means "just how + adjective". It often appears in embedded clauses and rhetorical statements rather than as a bare question.

• 你不知道这件事有多难。(nǐ bù zhī dào zhè jiàn shì yǒu duō nán) - you have no idea how hard this is.
• 你看他跑得有多快！(nǐ kàn tā pǎo de yǒu duō kuài) - look how fast he runs!
• 我不知道那座山有多高。(wǒ bù zhī dào nà zuò shān yǒu duō gāo) - I don't know how high that mountain is.

The literal sense of 有 here is "has the extent of", so 有多难 is "has how much difficulty". In a genuine measurement question 有 is optional - 这座山有多高？and 这座山多高？both ask "how high is this mountain?", with the 有 version sounding marginally more deliberate. But once the clause is embedded under 知道 (know), 看 (look at), 想 (imagine) and so on, the 有 is strongly preferred and carries the "just how / you wouldn't believe how" colour. This is also the slot where the small-pole adjective becomes natural in exclamation: 你不知道我有多累 (how tired I am) is fine, because here you are exclaiming about a degree you already know, not neutrally measuring it.

多久 for how long (time), and duration

For duration you do not use 多长 directly on the time; you use 多久 (duō jiǔ), built from 多 plus 久 (jiǔ, "long in time"). 久 is the large-pole adjective for stretches of time, so it slots into the same 多 + adjective frame.

• 你学中文学了多久了？(nǐ xué zhōng wén xué le duō jiǔ le) - how long have you been learning Chinese?
• 这部电影多久？(zhè bù diàn yǐng duō jiǔ) - how long is this film?
• 还要等多久？(hái yào děng duō jiǔ) - how much longer do we have to wait?

The answer is a duration phrase dropped into the slot: 学了三年了 (sān nián, three years), 两个小时 (liǎng ge xiǎo shí, two hours). You will also meet 多长时间 (duō cháng shí jiān, "how long a time"), which uses the physical-length adjective 长 applied to the noun 时间 (time) and means the same thing as 多久. So 你等了多久？and 你等了多长时间？are interchangeable. The shortcut: 多久 for time on its own, 多长 for physical length of an object, and 多长时间 as the longer-winded equivalent of 多久. Duration phrases as sentence elements are handled in numbers, time and dates.

多少 versus 多: quantity versus degree

This is the distinction that separates the two halves of the 多 family, and getting it wrong is the most common error in the whole area. 多 + adjective asks about degree (a position on a scale). 多少 (duō shao) asks about countable or measurable quantity (a number of things).

• 你多高？(nǐ duō gāo) - how tall are you? (degree - a point on the height scale)
• 你有多少钱？(nǐ yǒu duō shao qián) - how much money do you have? (quantity)
• 这条路多长？(zhè tiáo lù duō cháng) - how long is the road? (degree)
• 这里有多少条路？(zhè lǐ yǒu duō shao tiáo lù) - how many roads are there here? (quantity)

The test: if you can answer with a measurement on a single scale (1.8 metres, 3 km, 25 years), use 多 + adjective. If you can answer with a count of items or an amount of stuff (five books, three hundred yuan), use 多少 + (measure word) + noun. 多少 is followed by a noun; 多 is followed by an adjective. They are not interchangeable, and 你多少高 / 你多钱 are both wrong. For the wider family of question words including 多少 and 几, see question words.

The 多么 exclamative: related but separate

Do not confuse the question 多 with the exclamative 多么 (duō me). Adding 么 turns 多 from "to what extent?" into "to such an extent!" - it is not a question at all but an exclamation, usually closed with 啊 (a) or 了.

• 多么美丽啊！(duō me měi lì a) - how beautiful!
• 他多么聪明啊！(tā duō me cōng míng a) - how clever he is!
• 这多么重要！(zhè duō me zhòng yào) - how important this is!

In speech 么 is often dropped, leaving bare 多: 多美啊！(duō měi a, how beautiful!) means the same. The crucial differences from the question pattern: the exclamative is not asking for a figure, it takes any adjective (no large-pole restriction, because you are praising not measuring), and it is typically marked by 啊 / 了 at the end and a falling exclamatory tone. So 多高 with rising intonation and no final particle is a question ("how tall?"); 多高啊 with 啊 is an exclamation ("how tall it is!"). Same two characters, different job, decided by the particle and the intonation.

Common errors

Error 1: using 怎么 for how + adjective

English "how" tempts learners to reach for 怎么 (zěn me), but 怎么 asks in what manner / by what means (how do you do something), never to what extent. Degree questions need 多.

• ✗ 你怎么高？- WRONG. This is not "how tall are you"; at best it is gibberish. Use 你多高？(nǐ duō gāo).
• ✗ 这条路怎么长？- WRONG. Use 这条路多长？(zhè tiáo lù duō cháng).
• 你怎么去学校？(nǐ zěn me qù xué xiào) - CORRECT, because this asks the method - how do you get to school? (by what means).

Reserve 怎么 for manner and method; use 多 + adjective for extent.

Error 2: using 多少 where degree is meant

Because both translate to "how much / how" in English, learners put 多少 in front of an adjective. 多少 takes a noun, not an adjective.

• ✗ 你多少高？- WRONG. Height is a degree, not a count. Use 你多高？(nǐ duō gāo).
• ✗ 他多少大？- WRONG. Use 他多大？(tā duō dà) for "how old is he?".
• 你买了多少书？(nǐ mǎi le duō shao shū) - CORRECT - how many books did you buy? (a count, so 多少 + noun).

If the slot after the word is an adjective, you want 多, not 多少.

Error 3: asking from the small pole

Learners who know both adjectives of a pair sometimes pick the one that matches reality - asking 多矮 (how short) about a small child or 多近 (how near) about a close shop. Grammatical, but marked and often rude. Mandarin asks neutrally from the large pole.

• ✗ (neutral question) 你妹妹多小？- ODD. To ask a young sibling's age, still use 你妹妹多大？(nǐ mèi mei duō dà).
• ✗ (neutral question) 这家店离这儿多近？- ODD. Use 这家店离这儿多远？(zhè jiā diàn lí zhèr duō yuǎn).

The large-pole adjective names the dimension without prejudging the answer. Use the small pole only inside a 有多 exclamation where the value is already known and you are commenting on it (你不知道我有多累 - how tired I am).

What to drill

1. Memorise the frame, not eight separate questions. 多 + large-pole adjective is one structure: 多高, 多远, 多长, 多大, 多重, 多宽, 多深, 多厚. Learn the slot and the adjectives drop in.
2. Always ask from the large pole. 多高 not 多矮, 多大 not 多小, even when the real answer is small. The small pole is reserved for loaded questions and 有多 exclamations.
3. Slot the answer back where 多 stood. 你多高 -> 我一米八；这条路多长 -> 三公里长. Number plus measure is the whole predicate; no verb needed.
4. Split 多 from 多少 by what follows. Adjective after = degree = 多 (多高). Noun after = quantity = 多少 (多少钱). They never swap.
5. Use 多久 for time, 怎么 for method. Duration is 多久 (or 多长时间), not 多长. Manner is 怎么, never 多 + adjective.
6. Keep the 多么 exclamative separate. 多么美丽啊 is an exclamation ("how beautiful!"), marked by 啊 / 了 and open to any adjective; it is not the measurement question.

For the rest of the question-word system see question words. For how the large-pole adjective also heads comparisons, see comparatives with 比. For why no 是 or 很 is needed around the adjective, see adjectives as stative verbs, and for building the units in your answers see numbers, time and dates.