How tall are you

[jacktthekilns]

I can't tell if I need quantus or quam altus for this. Or I could be completely off.

 

[Adrian]

Quam altus/alta/altum est X usually referst to "how high is X"
for people (how tall) I would imagine Quam procerus /procera es?

 

[Quasus]

Or I could be completely off.

Good question. It may happen that there's no way to know. A word-for-word translation may not work. For instance, in Russian one would never ask how tall a person is, but rather what the person's height is. I wish I knew how to say that in idiomatic Latin.

 

[Quasus]

Velim mihi dicas, nisi molestum est, L. Turselius qua facie fuerit, qua statura, quo municipio, qua tribu. Cic.

 

[Puer Pedens]

So.. "Qva statvra es?" or Qvam altvs/alta es?

 

[Anbrutal Russicus]

As mentioned above, altus isn't used to talk about stature: prōcērus and longus are. By the Russian logic, quam prōcērus/longus presumes that someone is of tall stature and proceeds to ask just how tall. However Varro's usage in reference to someone presumed short shows that the English logic was at least possible in certain contexts (here the principle of comparison is explained):

• ...dīcere nōn possīs, sī illōs breviōrēs cum quibus cōnferuntur quam longī sint ignōrēs "you can't tell if you don't know how tall the short ones are who are the object of comparison".