Exclamatory phrases in Spanish
¡Qué barbaridad! How awful! ( What a barbarity!)
¡Qué bonito! How beautiful!
¡Qué raro! How weird!
¡Qué fastidio! What a nuisance!
¡Qué mierda! What a crap!
¡Qué tío! What a guy!
¡Vaya un chico! What a boy!
¡Vaya (un) día! What a day!
¡Vaya (una) cosa! What are you saying! (What a thing)
¡Qué lástima!/ ¡Qué pena! What a shame!
¡No puedo creerlo! I can’t believe it!
¡Por Dios! For God’s sake!
¡Qué susto! What a surprise! It’s used to express shock, both to show when you’re shocked yourself and also to show you understand when someone is telling you about a fright they experienced themselves. The literal translation is what a scare! And although for English speaker might sound weird, it is a pretty common exclamation to use in Spanish
The popular exclamations ¡vamos! ¡vaya! And ¡anda! Could all have several meanings like
Well! Come one! Go on! Well now!
#note-the use of religious names in simple exclamations is not considered sacrilegious or offensive in Spanish unless they are employed in a violent or angry manner. Ordinary Spanish speech is filled with expressions as: ¡Jesús!, ¡Dios!, ¡Por Dios!, ¡Virgen!
And I think those are all the exclamations I wanted to share with you today, but now as usual I would love to hear from you, so come over to the comments and let me know if you know any other exclamatory phrases in Spanish.
I am looking forward to reading your comments!
And….if you want to download this expressions in an audio format, so you can get familiar with the sound and tone we use in each of them click here
2 Responses to “Exclamatory phrases in Spanish!”
Alicia
Una mujer con quien trabajo siempre dice “Madre de Dios”. Me gusta la frase “¡No me (lo) digas!”
blancadt
Gracias por tu comentario Alicia. “¡Madre de Díos!” Es también muy popular. Y me encanta “¡no me digas!” Yo la uso mucho. 🙂