Exclamatory Sentences
Exclamatory sentences show strong emotion like surprise, joy, or anger, and they often use qué or cómo to highlight the intensity. In Spanish, they always require opening and closing exclamation marks, and the word order can flip to add emphasis.
Basic Form
An exclamatory sentence in Spanish begins with an inverted exclamation mark and ends with a standard one, signaling the reader to emphasize tone from the start. You typically use qué to emphasize a noun or adjective, and cómo to emphasize a manner, condition, or verb.
Qué Sentences
Use qué before an adjective, noun, or phrase to highlight its striking quality, and remember that the sentence often remains declarative in structure. When qué modifies a noun, an adjective usually follows to deepen the impact.
Examples
| Spanish Example | English Translation | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 🧀 ¡Qué queso tan cremoso! | What wonderfully creamy cheese! | Quality praise |
| 🍓 ¡Qué frescas están las fresas! | How fresh the strawberries are! | Freshness praise |
| 🥖 ¡Qué crujiente está el pan! | How crusty the bread is! | Texture praise |
| ☕ ¡Qué aroma tan rico tiene el café! | What a lovely aroma the coffee has! | Scent praise |
Cómo Sentences
Use cómo to emphasize the way something happens, an adjective or adverbial phrase, or to highlight a verb-driven circumstance; the sentence often inverts for added force. Cómo is followed by a verb when stressing manner, or by an adjective when stressing condition.
Examples
| Spanish Example | English Translation | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 🍯 ¡Cómo brilla la miel al sol! | How the honey shines in the sun! | Visual praise |
| 🌸 ¡Cómo huelen las flores del mercado! | How the market flowers smell! | Scent praise |
| 🎨 ¡Cómo coloran los puestos las frutas! | How the fruits color the stalls! | Color praise |
| 🎶 ¡Cómo suena alegre la música callejera! | How joyfully the street music sounds! | Sound praise |
Word Order
Turning the normal word order upside down—such as placing the verb before the subject—heightens emphasis and makes the exclamation feel more vivid and immediate. This inversion is common after cómo and sometimes after qué, depending on whether the sentence highlights a thing or a manner.
Examples
| Spanish Example | English Translation | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 🍊 ¡Rojas y brillantes están las naranjas! | Red and shiny are the oranges! | Fronted adjective phrase |
| 🌈 ¡Hermoso es el arcoíris sobre el mercado! | Beautiful is the rainbow over the market! | Inverted subject-verb |
| 🌟 ¡Tan alegre está hoy todo el mercado! | So cheerful is the whole market today! | Fronted intensifier |
| 🧺 ¡Llenas de color están las canastas! | Full of color are the baskets! | Postposed subject |
Short Exclamations
Short exclamations like ¡qué bien!, ¡cómo no!, or ¡qué gusto! pack emotion into tiny phrases useful for quick reactions in conversation. These set phrases follow the same rules for accentuation and punctuation, and they rely on shared context to deliver punchy emphasis.
Summary
Exclamatory sentences use opening and closing ¡ … !, and they deploy qué and cómo to spotlight nouns, adjectives, or ways things happen; word order can flip to ramp up intensity. Mastering these small twists lets you convey emotion naturally and makes your Spanish sound lively and expressive.
Last updated: Sun Sep 14, 2025