多 — Put 多 before a stative verb (高/大/重) to ask how far up that quality reaches.

grammar → 多

TSUMUGU · TBCL 2 (est.) · 語法

多 grammar point · tier 1 · 多 + stative verb — asking how [adjective] (degree question)

· duō

Put 多 before a stative verb (高/大/重) to ask how far up that quality reaches.

Hook inherited from 量詞.

Put 多 before a stative verb (高/大/重) to ask how far up that quality reaches.

框 · Frame

[subj] 多 [stative verb]？

觸 · Trigger

You want a measured answer to how far up a scale a quality sits — how tall, how big, how heavy.

序 · The move

1name the quality on a scale: 高, 大, 重, 遠is it a stative verb that takes a measured answer?

2put 多 directly in front of it: 多高is the slot open — no 很/太 already filling the degree?

3set the subject in front: 你哥哥多高does it read as an open question, not a statement of fact?

例 · Examples

1你your哥哥older brother多how (to what degree)高tall？

How tall is your older brother?

界 · Boundary

多少

多 + stative verb asks where a quality sits on a scale (多高 = how tall); 多少 asks a count or amount of a thing (多少錢 = how much money). One probes degree, one probes quantity.

比

多高 asks an absolute degree with no second party; 比 measures A against B (他比我高 = he is taller than me). The degree question wants a number; the comparison wants a winner.

splitting 多 from the verb: 你哥哥多很高 → 你哥哥多高 (the degree slot is the verb's own, no 很)

using a count word for a scale: 你哥哥多少高 → 你哥哥多高 (多少 is for quantities, not degrees)

treating 多高 as a fixed degree rather than an open one: it asks how tall and waits for a number, so it needs a question, not a bare statement

English fronts a how + adjective phrase (how tall is he); Mandarin keeps 多 glued to the stative verb in place (他多高), no fronting.