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Change in meaning between these four phrases

 

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  #1  
Old July 04, 2011, 06:05 PM
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CobaltStymie CobaltStymie is offline
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Change in meaning between these four phrases

Pardon me, but I thought I might check my understanding of these four phrases. I was working with a grammar book of the Spanish language. These phrases are my own, composed by me, so they are probably not proper Spanish. But, what I would like to know is if my understanding of the grammatical principles set forth in the book that I used to compose these phrases makes sense.

In other words, I was reading the grammatical principles of the book. Created these phrases according to those various grammatical principles, and then tried to interpret their meaning. I assure you, that this is not the only way I learn spanish. This is just one thing that I wanted to do.

In any case, they all have to do with time:

¿Cuanto tiempo hay?

I think this might mean, "How much time is there?"(I think this would be appropriate if there was a deadline)

¿Cuanto está el tiempo?

I think this might mean something like, "What is the time?" (As in, How long has it been?)

¿Como es el tiempo?

I imagine someone would say something like this if they wanted to know how fast their run was at a race track. "What is the time?"(Was It faster than the last one?)

¿Que tiempo hay? "What time is available?"(I think might be accurate?)

I'm sure there are others.

What would be the most natural way of getting each of these grammatical points across?
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  #2  
Old July 04, 2011, 06:27 PM
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aleCcowaN aleCcowaN is offline
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¿Cuánto tiempo hay? =~ ¿Qué tiempo hay? (How much time is left?)
¿Cómo es el tiempo? =(something like) How does weather use to be?
¿Cuánto está el tiempo? --> It doesn't make sense. I looks like you are asking the price of time or weather.
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Old July 04, 2011, 09:56 PM
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Oh. Ok. Thank you aleCcowan.
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Old July 05, 2011, 10:23 AM
Luna Azul Luna Azul is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CobaltStymie View Post

¿Cuánto tiempo hay?
I think this might mean, "How much time is there?"(I think this would be appropriate if there was a deadline)
It's not the most common way to say it, but it might mean "How much time is left?"
Best way: ¿Cuánto tiempo queda?

¿Cuánto está el tiempo?
I think this might mean something like, "What is the time?" (As in, How long has it been?) This doesn't mean any thing

¿Cómo es el tiempo?
I imagine someone would say something like this if they wanted to know how fast their run was at a race track. "What is the time?"(Was It faster than the last one?) It would be a peculiar way to say "What does the weather look like".
Best way: "¿Cómo está el tiempo?", but I'm afraid it will always be talking about the weather, not time.

¿Qué tiempo hay? "What time is available?"(I think might be accurate?) This one would mean the same as the first one: "How much time is left?"
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