What are the meanings to cuanto/a/s?

Question

My Spanish 101 book doesn't separate the words in slashes. It says they all mean how much and how many.
Please tell me the meanings of
cuanto
cuanta
cuantos
cuantas

There is supposed to be accents in each word over the a, but I cannot figure out how to put them on there in Yahoo Answers.

Answer 1

They all mean how many/much, but the suffix varies when the gender of the following word varies. (Do they really need the accent (I do not remember)? I suppose this is when they are interrogative words)
Por ejemplo
... cuanto tiempo ... (el tiempo =the time/weather =masculine)
... cuantos recuerdos ... (el recuerdo = the memory, ...-os plural)
... cuanta alegr/ia ... (la alegr/ia =the joy =feminine)
... cuantas horas ... (la hora =the hour =feminine, ...-as plural)

Answer 2

A large amount of words in Northern European languages use the neutral gender so they are not masculine nor feminine. In Latin languages (French/ Spanish/ Italian/ Portuguese) eveything has gender. This is a major cause of complaint for foreigners trying to learn. You have to know the word to know the gender (sorry, nobody said it is easy). Masculine words end with "o", feminine words by "a", generally. "Cuanto dinero?" Dinero is masculine. "Cuantas naranjas?" Naranja (orange, the fruit) is feminine.

Buena (feminine) suerte. It's damned unlucky, isn't it?

Answer 3

Use the o when the word that follows ends in an o, or what you are talking about ends in o.
cuanto tiempo=how long, how much time.
use the s when you know it has to be more than one.
cuantas niñas=how many girls.