Cuanto‘as much/many as’
In principle cuantois a quantifying adjective and so agrees in number and
gender with the noun it modifies. It is equivalent in meaning to todo el que,
todos los que etc:
Tomaremos cuantas medidas sean necesarias.
We will take all the necessary measures.
Bebe cuanta agua necesites. Drink all the water you need.However, the form cuantocan also be used as an invariable neuter pronoun
with general reference (in this use it is occasionally reinforced with todo
‘everything’, ‘all that’):
Hice cuanto pude. I did everything I could.
Les dimos todo cuanto We gave them everything we
teníamos. had.Relative clauses with infinitives
Particularly when the antecedent is an indefinite or negative pronoun such
as algo‘something’ or nada‘nothing’, a relative clause may have an infini-
tive as its main verb:
No tengo nada con lo que secarme las manos.
I haven’t got anything to dry my hands with.Esto me ha dado mucho en que pensar.
This has given me a lot to think about.
In some cases the antecedent can be omitted too, in which case a written
accent must be applied to the relative pronoun or adverb:No tengo con qué lavarme el pelo.
I haven’t got anything to wash my hair with.
No encontramos dónde dormir.
We couldn’t find anywhere to sleep.25.9
(^1111) 25.8
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1011
1
12111
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
20111
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
30111
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
40
41111
Relative
clauses with
infinitives