Advanced emphatic and exclamative structures

What it is

At C2, exclaiming goes far beyond ¡Qué bonito! Native speakers have a whole kit of oraciones exclamativas (exclamative sentences) and intensificadores (intensifiers) for sounding amazed, exasperated or ironic. Some measure quantity (¡La cantidad de gente que vino!), some measure degree (¡Lo cansada que estoy!), some present a quality as beyond doubt (¡Si serás despistado!), some mean the opposite of what they say (¡Bonita forma de pedir las cosas!), and some stop halfway and let the intonation finish the sentence (Hacía un frío…).

Two skills matter here: building each pattern correctly, and knowing where it sounds natural. Most of these exclamations are colloquial, and several belong to Spain or to one region of Latin America.

How to form it

Points of form that learners miss:

• After que, the verb comes first and the subject follows: ¡Lo bien que cocina tu abuela!, ¡La cantidad de gente que vino a la boda!
• Lo is neuter, but the adjective still agrees with the noun it describes: ¡Lo caras que están las verduras!
• La de is short for la cantidad de, so the article is always la, whatever the noun: ¡La de libros que tiene!
• The second que in ¡Qué lindo que canta! is colloquial and optional: ¡Qué lindo canta! means the same.
• The si of certainty is not "if" and needs no main clause. The future refers to the present (¡Si será terco!: he is so stubborn), the conditional to the past (¡Si estaría cansada, que me dormí en el metro!: I must have been exhausted, I fell asleep on the metro).

When to use it

• ¡Lo bien que cocina tu abuela!Your grandmother cooks so well!degree; fine in writing too
• ¡Si lo sabré yo, que viví diez años en Quito!Don't I know it! I lived in Quito for ten years.certainty; colloquial, very common in Spain
• ¡Flor de lío se armó en la reunión!What a mess broke out at the meeting!Río de la Plata; flor de = what a
• ¡Vaya cara que tiene tu jefe!Your boss has some nerve!Spain; tener cara = to have a nerve
• ¡Hay que ver lo que ha crecido tu sobrino!Look how much your nephew has grown!Spain; Latin America: ¡Cómo creció tu sobrino!
• Dice cada cosa…The things he comes out with…suspended: the listener completes it
• ¡Cuán breve fue aquella dicha!How brief that happiness was!literary

Register. Nearly everything here is colloquial. In an essay or a formal email, stick to lo + adjective + que and plain qué; ¡cuán…! belongs to poetry, speeches and deliberately elevated prose.

Irony. Bonito or lindo + noun, menudo and tremendo can praise or criticise, and only context and tone decide. ¡Tremenda fiesta! is a great party; ¡Tremendo lío! is a disaster. ¡Bonita forma de pedir las cosas! is never praise.

Suspended intensives. In these enunciados suspendidos (suspended sentences) the speaker leaves out the consequence ("so cold that…") and the listener supplies it; in writing, the ellipsis (…) carries the meaning. You can also finish them with a consecutive que: Hacía un frío que no se aguantaba. Spain adds que no veas; Latin America prefers que ni te imaginas.

Try it

Five quick exercises from this topic's training set:

Contrasts and traps

• menudo. Before a noun in an exclamation it means "what a (huge)…", never "small": ¡Menudo susto! is a big fright. It is essentially a Spain-only intensifier; in Mexico menudo is a tripe soup. In Latin America say ¡Tremendo susto! or ¡Qué susto!
• lo or la de. Lo goes with adjectives and adverbs (degree), la de with nouns (quantity). ¡Lo de veces…! mixes the two.
• cuán or cuánto. Cuán only modifies an adjective or an adverb. With a verb or a noun, use cuánto: ¡Cuánto te extraño!, ¡Cuánta gente!
• Two kinds of si. Certainty takes the future or conditional (¡Si será terco!); protest takes an ordinary indicative (¡Si yo no dije nada!: but I didn't say anything!).
• Regional markers. ¡Hay que ver lo…!, ¡Anda que…! and que no veas mark you as someone who learned Spanish in Spain. In a neutral or Latin American text, use ¡Cómo…!, ¡Lo… que…! or tremendo.

For Portuguese speakers

A lot transfers directly: Que lindo que ela canta! is ¡Qué lindo que canta!, and tão works like tan (¡Es tan pesado…!). The typical slips are elsewhere:

• Como você é teimoso! → ¡Qué terco eres! Spanish exclaims about a quality with qué; ¡Cómo eres terco! sounds foreign. Keep cómo for verbs: ¡Cómo llueve!
• Que baita problema! → ¡Tremendo problema! (Spain: ¡Menudo problema!). Menudo looks like miúdo, but here it means "huge".
• Quanta coisa a gente viveu! → ¡La cantidad de cosas que vivimos! (Spain: ¡La de cosas que hemos vivido!).
• Como estão caras as verduras! → ¡Lo caras que están las verduras!, with agreement after the neuter lo.
• Ele é tão chato… → Es tan pesado… Spanish chato describes a flat nose, not an annoying person.