28.2. ‘How much?’ ‘How many?’
Models
| 1) | QIN OĆE? | ‘How many are they?’ |
| 2) | QIN OĆE Ȼ SYÁ¸S? | ‘How many went?’ |
| 3) | QIN OĆE Ȼ EN¸ S¸IȽEN? | ‘How much did you eat?’ |
| 4) | SX̱EN¸I¸EṈ¸ OĆE TŦE EN¸ SNEW̱EȽ? | ‘How much is your canoe?’ |
| 5) | X̱EN¸I¸EṈ¸ OĆE Ȼ SĆEḴS TŦE EN¸ SNEW̱EȽ? | ‘How big is your canoe?’ |
‣ 1 The word QIN is the key word here in models 1, 2, and 3. It can be translated ‘how many’ or ‘how much’ or ‘what number.’ Model 3, for example, could also be translated ‘How many did you eat?’ or ‘What number (of items) did you eat?’
‣ 2 Notice that the pattern here is much the same as the pattern for STÁṈ ‘what’ and SÁN ‘who.’ Review §15 on those types of questions.
‣ 3 If QIN does not look familiar, review §21.3 on asking about the time of day. Notice that when QIN is used for asking the time of day, the event being asked about is conjoined to the QIN with I¸. Compare these two sentences with models 2 and 3 here.
QIN OĆE I¸ YÁ¸? ‘What time did they go?’
QIN OĆE I¸ IȽEN SW̱? ‘What time did you eat?’
The I¸ conjoined clause construction (described in §21.3) makes it a question about time. The Ȼ subordinate clause construction, shown in models 2 and 3 here, makes it a question about quantity.
‣ 4 Just as STÁṈ and SÁN can mean ‘something/anything’ and ‘someone/anyone’ as well as ‘what’ and ‘who’ (review §15), QIN can also mean ‘some number,’ ‘several,’ or ‘any unspecified quantity’ when it is not used in these question constructions. For example:
QIN SȻÁĆEL Ȼ NE S¸ÁȽE. ‘I’ve been here for some/several days.’
how many day Ȼ my S-here
In this sentence, QIN acts as an adjective modifying SȻÁĆEL. We know that this is not to be interpreted as a question because the QIN is followed by a noun, and the OĆE particle is absent.
‣ 5 In §22 on numbers it is mentioned that there are special suffixes that can be put on numbers for counting different kinds of things. Since QIN means ‘what number,’ it also takes these counting suffixes. These lexical suffixes are covered in detail in §37.3. Here, we give just two useful forms: QENÁLE ‘how many people’ and QENOȽ ‘how many times.’ Notice that these ‑ÁLE and ‑OȽ suffixes are the same as those used on numbers three through ten, as shown in point 7 and point 10 of §22.
‣ 6 In model 4, we have a completely different construction. It is shown here just because the English translation is ‘how much.’ In fact, this is the same as model 3 in §28.1. Model 4 could also be translated ‘How is your canoe?’ But in the context of someone selling their canoe, the interpretation given in model 3 is the best.
‣ 7 The pattern in model 5 is similar to that in model 4, but this one asks about the degree of some quality. This pattern uses X̱EN¸I¸EṈ¸ ‘how, way’ without the S- ‘stative’ prefix (§43) similar to the pattern in the equative described in §20.1. The quality appears in a Ȼ clause (§46).
 | QENÁLE LE¸ OĆE Ȼ STESS? | ‘How many got there?’ |
 | EWE S ṈEN¸. | ‘Not many.’ |
| QIN OĆE Ȼ S¸IȽENS? | ‘How much did they eat?’ |
| U¸ MEQ ȻE. | ‘All of it.’ |
| 28.2A. Translate each into English. 1. QENÁȽ OĆE Ȼ EN, SYÁ¸ ṮE PÁSTEN? 2. QIN OĆE Ȼ SNEḴEṈS? 3. QIN OĆE Ȼ EN¸ SȻENNEW̱? 4. SX̱EN¸I¸EṈ¸ OĆE ŦE SWÁTES? | 28.2B. Translate each into SENĆOŦEN. 1. How much can I take? 2. How many went home? 3. How many helped? 4. How many times did they run? |