Spanish Exclamations: ¡Qué bonito!, ¡Cuánta gente!, ¡Vaya!

Spanish exclaims with a small set of frames headed by qué, cuánto, cómo and vaya, wrapped in ¡...!:

• ¡Qué bonito! - How lovely!
• ¡Qué casa tan grande! - What a big house!

Exclamations at a glance

The whole page on one screen.

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1. 1¡Qué calor!
2. 2¡Cómo llueve!
3. 3¡Qué frío!
4. 4¡Qué viento!

¡Qué calor!: how hot it is! ¡Cómo llueve!: how it's raining! ¡Qué frío!: how cold it is! ¡Qué viento!: what a wind!

Qué: how and what a

What follows qué decides the English. An adjective or an adverb: how. A noun: what a, and Spanish has no word for the "a":

¡Qué frío! is literally "what cold!": Spanish uses the noun where English uses the adjective.

When the sentence goes on, the verb comes straight after the adjective, and the subject goes last:

• ¡Qué bonita es tu casa! - How lovely your house is!
• ¡Qué bien canta tu hermana! - How well your sister sings!

Qué + noun + tan + adjective

To give the noun an adjective, slot tan or más between them. Both are correct and mean the same; muy never goes here:

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1. 1¡Qué perro tan pequeño!
2. 2¡Qué perro tan grande!

¡Qué perro tan pequeño!: what a small dog! ¡Qué perro tan grande!: what a big dog!

The accent and the ¡

Qué, cuánto, cómo and quién keep their accent when they exclaim, exactly as in questions. Without it, the same letters are a plain "that", "as" or "who":

The opening ¡ goes where the exclamation starts, which need not be the start of the sentence:

• Juan, ¡qué sorpresa! - Juan, what a surprise!

Cuánto: what a lot

Cuánto exclaims about amount. Before a noun it agrees, like any adjective:

Before a verb it never changes and means how much:

• ¡Cuánto has crecido! - How you've grown!
• ¡Cuánto lo siento! - I'm so sorry!

Cómo: how it happens

Cómo + verb exclaims about how something is done, or how much:

With a verb, cuánto and cómo often overlap: ¡Cómo has crecido! and ¡Cuánto has crecido! both mean how you've grown, and either will do. Cuánto leans on the amount; cómo can point at the way or the degree.

Vaya: what a, with a sigh

Vaya + noun is another "what a", and it often comes with a sigh or a raised eyebrow. It comes from ir, but here it never changes:

¡Qué coche! is usually plain admiration. ¡Vaya coche! can be awe, or a dry "some car, that".

Lo... que: how, inside a sentence

To fold a "how" into a longer sentence, use lo + adjective or adverb + que. The adjective agrees with what it describes:

The lo is the neuter one from lo neuter. An adverb such as bien never changes.

Mistakes English speakers make

What to do next

1. Adjective after qué: how. Noun after qué: what a, with no article.
2. Do the word order and cuánto drills below.
3. Then question words, where the same accents ask instead of exclaim.