Learn Spanish (Latin America): ¡Que tengas mucha salud y amor!

In Spanish, starting a sentence with ¡Que... ! followed by a verb is a very common way to express a hope or wish for someone else. It is actually a shortened version of Espero que... (I hope that...) or Deseo que... (I wish that...). When you drop the 'I hope', you are left with this snappy phrase for wishes!

Why is the verb tengas instead of tienes?

Because this sentence expresses a wish or a hope rather than stating a concrete fact, it requires a special verb form called the subjunctive. Tienes is the normal 'you have' used to state facts, while tengas is the subjunctive form used right after ¡Que... ! to mean 'May you have...'.

Amor is masculine, so why does the sentence use the feminine word mucha?

Mucha (a lot of) is feminine here because it sits right next to the feminine noun salud (health). When an adjective comes directly before a list of nouns of different genders, it generally matches the gender of the very first noun it touches. Even though it is feminine, it is understood that 'a lot of' applies to the amor as well!

When would I typically say ¡Que tengas mucha salud y amor! to someone?

This is a very common, warm wish in Latin America for special occasions. You will hear it frequently on birthdays, at weddings, or during New Year celebrations when wishing someone well for their future.