Exclamatory Structures (Que + noun/adj)

Interjections are single bursts of feeling. But often you want to say what you're reacting to — "what a beautiful day!", "how you've grown!", "what a lot of people!". For that, Brazilian Portuguese gives you three reliable sentence frames built on the words que, como and quanto. Master these three and you can exclaim about almost anything. This page walks through each, the intensifier slot that ramps them up, and the trap that they look identical to questions.

Frame 1: Que + adjective / noun

This is the workhorse, the equivalent of English "What a…!" and "How…!". The structure is dead simple: que + the thing, no verb required.

With an adjective, que means "how":

With a noun, que means "what a":

Here is the first place English speakers stumble: English splits the job between "how" (before adjectives) and "what a" (before nouns). Portuguese uses one word, que, for both. You never decide between "how" and "what a" — it's always que.

Frame 2: Que + noun + (mais / tão) + adjective

To exclaim about a noun and describe it, you add an adjective after the noun — and you can crank up the intensity with mais or tão in between. This is the "What a + adjective + noun!" of English, but reversed: Portuguese keeps the adjective after the noun.

Both mais and tão are optional intensifiers — they don't translate as separate words ("more" / "so"); they simply add emphasis, like stretching the vowel in "what a gorgeous day". Without them the sentence still works (Que dia lindo!), but the intensifier slot is how Brazilians turn the volume up.

Frame 3: Como + clause

When you want a full clause with a verb — "how cold it is", "how you've grown" — you switch from que to como. This is the frame English speakers most often get wrong, because English uses "how" for both ("How cold!" and "How cold it is!") while Portuguese splits them: Que frio! (no verb) but Como está frio! (with a verb).

Note the word order: como + (subject) + verb, the same order as a statement — no inversion. English flips to "How cold it is" but keeps statement order in "How it rains"; Portuguese is consistent — always statement order after como.

Frame 4: Quanto / Quanta + noun

For exclaiming about quantity or abundance — "what a lot of…!", "so much/so many…!" — use quanto/quanta. Unlike que and como, this one agrees with the noun in gender and number, because it's quantifying it.

Quanto tempo! deserves a special mention: it's a fixed phrase that means "long time no see!" — one of the most common greetings between people who haven't met in a while. Learn it as a chunk.

Frame 5: Mas que…! (the indignant booster)

Tacking mas ("but") in front of a que-exclamation adds a note of indignation, impatience or strong reaction — like English starting with "Why, what a…!" or "Oh, what a…!".

It works with admiration too, but it most often carries an edge of "I can't believe this." Register: informal to neutral.

Questions vs. exclamations: the same words

Here is the deep point. Que, como, quanto are the same words you ask questions with. The grammar of question and exclamation is often identical — only the intonation (and in writing, the punctuation) tells them apart.

The melody is everything: questions tend to rise and stay up (or for wh-questions, fall gently); exclamations rise sharply and then drop. For the question side of que/o que, see the que vs o que page; for the full inventory of exclamatory sentences, see the exclamatory sentences page.

Common Mistakes

English "what a day" tempts you to insert um/uma. The article is already inside que; adding one is ungrammatical.

A conjugated verb requires como, not que. Que only fronts a bare adjective or noun.

Unlike que and como, the quanto family agrees with its noun. Gente is feminine singular → quanta.

English puts the adjective before the noun ("beautiful day"), and learners copy that order. The natural BR exclamation keeps the adjective after the noun, with mais/tão in the gap. (Que lindo dia! is heard but sounds bookish/calqued; Que dia lindo! is the everyday form.)

Keep the pairing straight: que + bare word (Que frio!); como + clause (Como está frio!). Mixing them is the single most common structural error.

Key Takeaways

• que
  • adjective/noun ("How…! / What a…!") — one word does both English jobs, and no article follows.
• que
  • noun + mais/tão
    • adjective ramps up intensity; mais is the colloquial default.
• como
  • a full clause (with a verb), in statement word order.
• quanto/quanta/quantos/quantas
  • noun for abundance — and it agrees with the noun.
• Mas que…! adds indignation; Quanto tempo! is the fixed "long time no see".
• These are the same words as questions — intonation (rise-then-fall) makes the exclamation.