Exclamations

Kurz erklärt

Spanish exclamations express strong feelings such as surprise, admiration, joy, or annoyance. They use an opening exclamation mark (¡) as well as a closing one (!). Common exclamatory words include qué, cómo, and cuánto. These words carry a written accent in exclamations.

Bildung

¡Qué + adjective/noun!; ¡Cómo + verb!; ¡Cuánto/a/os/as + noun!

Verwendung

• Use qué before an adjective or noun to react strongly to a quality or situation.
• Use cómo before a verb to emphasize the way or intensity of an action.
• Use cuánto and its agreeing forms to emphasize a large amount or number.
• Put ¡ at the beginning of the exclamation and ! at the end.

Beispiele

• ¡Qué bonito! — How beautiful!
• ¡Qué sorpresa! — What a surprise!
• ¡Cómo llueve! — It’s really raining!
• ¡Cuánta gente hay aquí! — There are so many people here!

Typischer Fehler

❌ Que bonito!

✅ ¡Qué bonito!

In an exclamation, qué has a written accent, and standard Spanish uses both the opening and closing exclamation marks.

Merke

Exclamatory qué, cómo, and cuánto always have a written accent. Do not forget the opening mark ¡.