newbie trying to understand どの and くらい in the phrase どのくらい


どの seems to be most frequently glossed as “which (X)”. And I understand that
くらい has the sense of “approximately”. But when I read

> ここからホテルまでどのくらいかかりますか,

rather than “about which”, どのくらい has the sense of something like “about how
far”. どの seems to be covering a lot of semantic ground.

Am I confronting 2 different words?

Is there a more-encompassing way of understanding どの ?




The ど in どの is actually part of the so-called ko-so-a-do (こそあど) group of
words, known as [demonstratives](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demonstrative).
They connect with other morphemes to make words such as これ・それ・あれ・どれ,
ここ・そこ・あそこ・どこ, and also your example, この・その・あの・どの, among others. The ど is the
interrogative of the group, always asking a question like 'which', 'where',
etc.

どの on its own means 'which (of more than two)'. It can be combined with other
words to express various things. In your example, どのくらい means 'how much' (the
literal meaning would be something like 'which extent').

[Have a look at this article](https://bit.ly/3083p6i) for some more info (in
Japanese).




The ど in どの is actually part of the so-called ko-so-a-do (こそあど) group of
words, known as [demonstratives](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demonstrative).
They connect with other morphemes to make words such as これ・それ・あれ・どれ,
ここ・そこ・あそこ・どこ, and also your example, この・その・あの・どの, among others. The ど is the
interrogative of the group, always asking a question like 'which', 'where',
etc.

どの on its own means 'which (of more than two)'. It can be combined with other
words to express various things. In your example, どのくらい means 'how much' (the
literal meaning would be something like 'which extent').

[Have a look at this article](https://bit.ly/3083p6i) for some more info (in
Japanese).

