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¡Qué bonito! Mi hermana se ha casado hoy.

¡Qué bonito! Mi hermana se ha casado hoy.
How beautiful! My sister has gotten married today.
From Lesson 116:Present perfect (he, has, ha)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about ¡Qué bonito! Mi hermana se ha casado hoy.

Why do we use "ha casado" instead of the regular past tense "casó"?
Ha casado is the present perfect tense. It is built using the helping verb haber (here, ha) and a past participle (casado). It is used here because of the word hoy (today). Since "today" is a time period that isn't over yet, the action feels very connected to the present moment.
Why does "se" come before "ha casado"? Can I separate the two parts of the verb?
Object pronouns and reflexive pronouns like se must always go before the conjugated helping verb (haber). You can never separate haber and the past participle. Therefore, it must be se ha casado. You cannot say ha se casado.
Why is there a "se" at all? Is getting married reflexive in Spanish?
Yes! The verb "to get married" is casarse (literally something like "to marry oneself"). If you leave out the se and just say mi hermana ha casado, it changes the meaning entirely. It would mean your sister performed a wedding ceremony for other people, like a priest or a judge!
Why does "¡Qué bonito!" mean "How beautiful"? Doesn't "qué" usually mean "what"?
Usually, qué does mean "what". However, when you put qué directly in front of an adjective inside exclamation marks, it translates to "how". So, ¡Qué bonito! means "How beautiful!" and ¡Qué interesante! means "How interesting!".

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