Mexican Spanish to Kyrgyz: a cómo sale asks about cost
Salir need not describe leaving a place
In Mexican Spanish, ¿A cómo sale esta tela? can ask about the price of fabric. The Diccionario del español de México explicitly records this cost-related use of salir. A Kyrgyz translation based only on leaving or coming out would turn a shopping question into a question about movement or production, while failing to ask for the price.
Compare ¿Cuánto sale el viaje? with ¿Cuándo sale el autobús? In a suitable exchange, the first concerns the journey’s cost and the second the bus’s departure time. The different question words matter as much as the repeated verb. Replacing salir with one target motion expression in both sentences would miss the financial question.
Use the target’s price question rather than a departure verb
The Talking Kyrgyz Phrasebook gives Тээтиги канча турат? as a question about how much an indicated item costs. The fragment канча турат provides an attested cost construction. It is useful evidence that a Spanish salir price question can be expressed through the target’s own price wording without retaining the Spanish motion metaphor.
The phrasebook example concerns an item being indicated, not every possible fare or service. A longer Spanish request still has to identify what is being priced: fabric, a journey, a repair or a whole purchase. The target’s price expression cannot recover an object that the translation has accidentally replaced with a departure location.
In ¿Cuánto sale por persona?, por persona specifies the unit for the cost. It does not ask how many people leave. If the conversation concerns a group booking, translating only an overall total could also answer a different question. The source explicitly asks for the individual amount, and that relationship belongs with the price in Kyrgyz.
The amount and the basis of comparison belong together
Compare Sale caro with Sale más caro. The first evaluates the cost as high; the second compares it with another option or an earlier price. Deleting más would remove the comparison, while inventing a specific alternative would add information. A translation should preserve whether the speaker gives an evaluation or a relative difference.
En total sale mil and Cada uno sale mil likewise describe different calculations. Even without changing the numeral, confusing the whole purchase with each individual item can multiply or divide the understood cost. The Mexican cost sense of salir must therefore be interpreted together with expressions specifying total, unit and comparison.
A practical travel exchange may contain both senses: ¿A qué hora sale y cuánto sale? The first question asks when departure occurs, and the second can ask what the journey costs. Kyrgyz need not repeat one verb simply because Spanish does. Preserve the two requested facts independently, using departure wording for the schedule and an appropriate cost construction for the fare, while retaining any stated unit such as per person or for the whole group.
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