The title speaks for itself.

k1attack:The title speaks for itself.

To my mind, kiom granda? says "what is the extent of the largeness?" whereas kiel granda? says "what is the manner/nature of the largeness?"

Roberto12:

k1attack:The title speaks for itself.

To my mind, kiom granda? says "what is the extent of the largeness?" whereas kiel granda? says "what is the manner/nature of the largeness?"

Back on your other thread k1attack there is some minor discussion still on about this, but I'd go with Kiel for saying both "what is the extent" and "what is the manner". Kiom for me is for counting quanitites, and you can't count adjectives - for example, you could be asked "how much bread is there?" and reply "three slices, three loaves", but you couldn't do that with say a colour, or so I think.
Plus:

"Mia kapo estas pli granda ol via" = My head is bigger than yours
"Mia kapo estas kiel granda kiel via" = My head is as big as yours
therefore when talking about "pli"ness, "Kiel granda estas mia kapo?" makes more sense to me, because it's like saying "Kiel kio estas la grandeco de mia kapo kiel?" (Like what is the size of my head similar to?).

Overall I prefer "kiel" because it fits into that quite regularly, where as "kiom" kind of comes out of left field, and doesn't fit with "Kiom granda estas mia kapo? Kiel via?" (How much big is my head? Like yours?).

To be safe though, I'd choose kiel, because if "kiel" is "what manner/way" etc, then "manner" or "way" could be substituted for "size" or "colour intensity" or "length" or whatever you want.

According to Wikipedia:

"Mia kapo estas tiel granda kiel via" = My head is as big as yours

not "....kiel granda kiel via."

k1attack:According to Wikipedia:

"Mia kapo estas tiel granda kiel via" = My head is as big as yours

not "....kiel granda kiel via."

I think they're both as right (kiel can mean "how", "as", "like"). Tiel would be better style IMHO though and Bertilow uses it too - here.

(see the "Kiel kaj tiel" section, that actually addresses the original question too :

"La tabelvortoj kiel kaj tiel montras ne nur manieron, sed ankaŭ gradon. Oni uzu ilin en la samaj lokoj, kie oni povus uzi tre:"

The tableword "kiel" and "tiel" show not only manner but also grade/degree. One should use them in the same place where one would use "very".

Also, see here, this shows the way "kiel" can be used instead of "tiel". For example: "Mia kapo estas granda en la grado kiu estas la grado de la grandeco de via kapo" - "My head is big to the grade which is (also) the grade of the size of your head")

ceigered:Kiom for me is for counting quanitites, and you can't count adjectives

Actually "kiom" is often used for adjectives, and the page you linked to in PMEG explains exactly why; kiom/tiom can be used to add extra emphasis. Search in Tekstaro with \\bkiom \\w{3,}aj?\\b and you'll find plenty of examples of that.

ceigered:

k1attack:According to Wikipedia:

"Mia kapo estas tiel granda kiel via" = My head is as big as yours

not "....kiel granda kiel via."

I think they're both as right (kiel can mean "how", "as", "like").

k1attack is right, the correct form is "tiel granda kiel via" not "kiel granda kiel via". Though I would say "la via" instead of just "via" in this instance.

La via to me sounds like italismo to me, but I understand why (I'd still use plain via though, for the sake of our non-definite-article-having friends).

And yes I was trying to agree (kind of) with k1attack's comment on tiel instead of kiel - I've been listening to a lecture tonight so my head's been elsewhere (going on lernu! did help me stay awake though , darn course making me go over lexical caterogies again). But as I said before, I think kiel technically can be used even if it isn't as correct as tiel. I would still prefer to use kiel instead of tiel* than I would prefer to use Kiom/tiom instead of kiel/tiel - after all, it's not in the fundamento (kiom, tiom). It's oft used no doubt coz I've seen it a number of times already today (when looking into it) but I don't think it's the best and most understandable choice (unless it started as a neologismo of sorts due to influence of national languages (well, neologismo refers to words rather than grammar... but yeah)).

*EDIT: No, actually, kiel.... kiel... is wrong, you're right - just looked at the grammar a bit harder, and realised that there isn't much reason to justify kiel... kiel... (or at least I've run out of reasons to justify it, anyone else can feel free to continue defending the usage if they want )

So yes, k1attack, you're right. Tiel... kiel.... would be perfect, kiel... kiel... is my lazy mistake

(and now I'm going to bed. Too tired to think about this).

"La via" or "via" may be correct in this sort of situation, and the meaning is not the same, so please don't use them interchangeably!

It has to do with whether the meaning is determinate or indeterminate - you use the form "la via" (la sxia, la lia, etc) if the pronoun is determinative. If not, we do not use "la".

This is a useful link explaining how determinatives work in English grammar, for those of you who have no idea what i'm talking about: Determinatives in English

There is more explanation in this concept in PMEG, on this page.

Here is an English translation of the part of that page that deals specifically with "via" as opposed to "la via":

PMEG: When a possessive pronoun appears alone, without a noun following it, it is not a determiner, and it doesn't show a determinative meaning. To show determinitive meaning, we normally use "la":

* Tiu ĉi libro estas mia. [This book is mine] It is one of my books, any one of my books - an indeterminate meaning.

* Tiu ĉi libro estas la mia. It is a specific, identified book, which belongs to me - a determinate meaning.

* Unu donis al sia florejo la formon de baleno; alia trovis pli bone, ke ŝia florejo similas je virineto de maro; sed la plej juna donis al la sia formon rondan, kiel la suno.[FA1.51] ["One gave her flowerbed the form of a whale; another found it better, that her flowerbed resemble a little mermaid; but the youngest gave hers a round shape, like the sun" - please note, for those of you comparing translations, that this is out of context, and I don't know the genders of the first and the third person in the sentence, so I made them both female] In this case, "la sia" = "sia florejo." All three flowerbeds are determinate. The first two have been made determinate by the determiners "sia" and "sxia" plus a noun, but the third has been made determinate with only a possessive pronoun alone, without an accompanying noun, hence it needs the word "la".

* Nu certe mi legis la vian, kiel bone skribita![Rz.47] [Well certainly I read yours, how well-written!] La vian = vian verkon = la verkon, kiun vi faris. [Yours = your work = the work, that you did]

But occasionally, you can leave out this la before a freestanding possessive pronoun, if the context is very clear:

* Li pli ŝatas mian domon ol (la) sian. = ...ol sian domon.

Back to the original sentence "My head is as big as yours" - You presumably have only one head. I would absolutely say "Mia kapo estas tiel granda kiel la via."

If you were to use a simple "via", the meaning would not be your specific head, but any head that belongs to you. Presumably you have only one head, so "la via" is the clear choice here.

The choice might be different if we are talking about something that people have multiples of.

My friend is better than yours:
Mia amiko estas pli bona ol la via = My friend [a defined friend] is better than your friend [a specific friend that we presumably have been talking about]

Mia amiko estas pli bona ol via amiko = again, "via" is a determiner, so we are talking about a specific friend of yours whom we both know.

Mia amiko estas pli bona ol via = My friend is better than any non-specific friend of yours, we aren't talking about any particular friend of yours.

Personally, I end up using "la via", "la lia", "la sxia" etc, much more than using "via", "sxia", "lia", simply because I am seldom comparing one thing to a whole undefined category of things!

Don't forget that this whole discussion is only relevant when we are talking about pronouns being used without a noun. When there is a personal possessive pronoun used with a noun, we never use "la" (because the possessive pronoun itself is the determiner, and we don't use two determiners together).

How would you use the pronoun referring to a noun when it is indeterminate? As in 'one of my books is red'?

Ah blimey. Seems way to complicated. Whatever, la via it is then (seems too confusing when you'd never say "la via hundo" - we already know its "your" dog, so it's thus specified as much as "la" would specify. So, on that train of logic, we know that it's "your" head, so I can't see how "la via" changes much. Unless you possess multiple heads. Even then, "la via" wouldn't help because we still don't know which out of the multiple "the heads" is being talked about. As for inderterminatives, couldn't we could just say "unu de viaj (kapoj)"?)

*collapses from exhaustion*