Exclamatory Sentences

Exclamatory sentences express a strong reaction — admiration, surprise, dismay, delight. English does this mostly with "What a...!" and "How...!" (What a beautiful day! How tall you've grown!). Brazilian Portuguese has a tidy set of three frames — Que…!, Como…!, and Quanto…! — plus a rich layer of interjections like Nossa! and Caramba!. The structures are easy; what makes them feel native is using the right one for the right thing and getting the intonation to swoop.

Que…! — the workhorse exclamation

Que before a noun, an adjective, or both is the most common exclamatory frame. It corresponds to both English "What a…!" and "How…!", and crucially, Portuguese never inserts an article: it is Que dia!, not Que um dia!.

Notice Que dia bonito! puts the adjective after the noun, the normal Portuguese order, with no article. The English "What a beautiful day" needs the article and puts the adjective first; the Portuguese is leaner.

To intensify, Brazilians often add mais or tão before the adjective — "what a very…":

A huge number of everyday reactions are just Que + a single word. Worth memorizing as fixed expressions: Que delícia! (How delicious! / How lovely!), Que legal! (How cool!), Que chato! (How annoying!), Que saco! (What a pain! — informal), Que horror! (How awful!), Que sorte! (How lucky!).

Que bom que…! — "How great that…!"

A specially useful pattern combines Que + adjective with a following clause introduced by que: Que [adjetivo] que [oração]! This is the everyday way to say "How great that…", "I'm so glad that…", "What a relief that…". The clause uses the ordinary indicative.

The literal structure is "How good that you came," and yes, the second que ("that") is required even though English drops it. Leaving it out (❌ Que bom você veio) is a common slip.

Como…! — "How… something is!"

When you want to exclaim about how much or how intensely something is the case — using a whole clause with a verb — reach for Como + clause. This frame focuses on degree.

The difference from Que: Que typically attaches to a noun or adjective phrase (Que bonito!), while Como attaches to a full clause with a verb (Como ela canta bem!). English "How…!" covers both, which is why learners reach for the wrong one — when there's a conjugated verb expressing degree, Como is usually the natural choice.

Quanto…! — "So much / So many!"

To exclaim about quantity, use Quanto (with the noun's gender and number): quanto, quanta, quantos, quantas.

Note Quanta gente! — gente ("people, crowd") is grammatically feminine singular, so the agreement is quanta, not quantos, even though the meaning is plural. This agreement is the only fiddly part of the Quanto frame.

Intonation is doing real work

None of these frames need a verb of exclaiming or any special punctuation beyond the exclamation mark. In speech, the meaning rides on a dramatic pitch contour — a sharp rise and fall on the key word. The same words said flat would be a plain comment; said with the swoop, they're an exclamation. Que frio. (a neutral remark, "It's cold") versus Que frio! (a shiver of complaint, "Ugh, it's freezing!"). Train your ear to the melody, not just the words.

Interjections

Layered on top of the grammatical frames is a vocabulary of standalone interjections — single words that carry a whole reaction. These are extremely Brazilian and instantly mark fluent, natural speech.

These often combine with the Que…! frames, as in Nossa, que susto! above — the interjection sets the emotional tone and the Que phrase names what triggered it.

Common Mistakes

Key takeaways

• Que…!
  • noun/adjective is the all-purpose exclamation — and takes no article (Que sorte!).
• Que [adj] que [clause]! with the indicative is the everyday "How great that…" (Que bom que deu certo!); keep both *que*s.
• Como…! exclaims about degree with a full verb clause (Como ela canta bem!); Quanto/Quanta…! exclaims about quantity and must agree (Quanta gente!).
• Interjections (Nossa!, Caramba!, Eita!) carry the emotional charge and pair naturally with the Que…! frames.