Thread: насколько vs как

Hi!

I often see насколько in sentences. But can I use как instead? Both should mean the same thing -> how. Are they identical or just synonyms?

Мы предлагаем вам пройти наш тест и узнать, насколько велик ваш словарный запас.
Мы предлагаем вам пройти наш тест и узнать, как велик ваш словарный запас.

Yes and no. Hard to put it simply... You see sometimes adjectives can use both, sometimes they don't go along well with one of those:

e.g.

как долго - kind of alright
насколько долго - nah... not good at all, at least without a context that'd call for it.

Same goes for your examples:

I like the one with насколько, but kind of scoff at the latter, although it might be okay to use it like that.

From how I understand it [as a non native of Russian],

All question words in languages can be broken down into "pure" forms using more basic question words, usually bottoming out around the king of all question words "what". как can be broken down into "In what way?" whereas насколько into "to what extend", "at what amount" (or even "on what level", noting the на in насколько). Seeing as сколько is "what amount of" this would make some sense.

Насколько being three syllables as opposed to the one of как, as well as the somewhat abstract difference between them, I'd imagine some linguistic "slouching" has arisen regarding the use of насколько, making как used instead at times.

In english, since we haven't really a word to distinguish the two meanings, "how" is used for both(if at very least for ease).