Learn Spanish (Latin America): ¡Qué bonito! Tu hijo empieza a tocar el piano. - How beautiful! Your son is starting to play the piano.

In Spanish, the verb empezar (to start) requires the preposition a when it is followed by another verb to describe starting an action. To say 'starting to play', you must use the pattern empieza a tocar. You cannot just put the two verbs directly together like empieza tocar.

I thought the verb for 'to play' was 'jugar'. Why is it 'tocar' here?

In Spanish, jugar is used for playing sports or games, like jugar al fútbol. When you are talking about playing a musical instrument, you must use tocar, which literally translates to 'to touch' or 'to feel'.

How does '¡Qué bonito!' translate to 'How beautiful!'? Shouldn't 'how' be 'cómo'?

When making an exclamation about a quality, Spanish uses ¡Qué! plus an adjective. While cómo means 'how' in questions, qué is the correct word for exclamations like 'how beautiful!' (¡Qué bonito!) or 'how weird!' (¡Qué raro!).

Why doesn't 'Tu' have an accent mark in this sentence?

Tu without an accent mark is the possessive adjective meaning 'your' (as in Tu hijo, 'your son'). Tú with an accent mark is the subject pronoun meaning 'you' (as in Tú eres, 'you are').