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I would like to add "on earth" or "the heck" to put emphasis on a "how much" question. What I mean by this is you can add emphasis to a "what" question like this, for example:

What is a ...

can be changed to

What the heck is a ...

I am just using ... as an example.

My question is how would I add a "the heck" to put emphasis on this question.

How much does a ... cost?

In simplified terms

What is a ...?

is to

What the heck is a ...?

as

How much does a ... cost?

is to what?

I googled "How the heck much" (quotes included), and this question was the first hit, so I don't quite understand the argument that this question shows lack of research effort.

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    How the heck much does a house cost? and equally How on earth much does he earn? are both idiomatic forms in an everyday spoken register in the UK. – WS2 Sep 20 '19 at 18:34
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    @WS2 Again, I'd have said the opposite. There must be two UKs (at least). Have you already Brexited? //// Only 253 Google hits for "How the heck much does". / 7 for "How on earth much". // Google Ngrams flatline. – Edwin Ashworth Sep 20 '19 at 18:52
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    The usage is quite common ("Who the heck is that?" / "Where the heck is that spanner?" / "Why the heck did you sell my best coat?"" / "How the heck + modal or other aux + S + V(...)?" [esp 'should I know?'; 'are we going to get there?' etc], but with 'which', 'how much', 'how far' etc it is unavailable or uncommon. A less pleasant variant is sometimes used instead. – Edwin Ashworth Sep 20 '19 at 19:06
  • For "How the heck much" I got 4000 Google matches. But of course this is a "polite" form of "how the hell much" with 221,000 or other still more profane versions. – GEdgar Sep 20 '19 at 23:23
  • You can say "What the heck does a thing cost?" – nnnnnn Sep 21 '19 at 01:21
  • "How *flipping* much does that cost?" Which is similar to the AmEng frigging but, in my view, less abrasive sounding. – Mari-Lou A Sep 25 '19 at 05:31
  • @Mari-LouA what is AmEng? – user12211554 Sep 25 '19 at 14:17
  • American English – Mari-Lou A Sep 25 '19 at 14:51
  • @Mari-LouA Ok got it – user12211554 Sep 25 '19 at 14:52
  • Why did the answer get deleted – user12211554 Sep 25 '19 at 16:38

0 Answers0