Learn Spanish (Latin America): ¡Qué horror! Dicen que una criatura extraña secuestró al perro. - How horrifying! They say that a strange creature kidnapped the dog.

¡Qué horror! Dicen que una criatura extraña secuestró al perro.

How horrifying! They say that a strange creature kidnapped the dog.

Breakdown of ¡Qué horror! Dicen que una criatura extraña secuestró al perro.

Questions & Answers about ¡Qué horror! Dicen que una criatura extraña secuestró al perro.

Who exactly is the "they" in Dicen que...?

There is no specific "they"! In Spanish, using the third-person plural verb form (dicen) without a subject pronoun is a common way to express an impersonal idea like "People say," "It is said," or "Rumor has it." It shows that the speaker doesn't know—or doesn't need to specify—who exactly said it.

Why is it ¡Qué horror! and not ¡Qué un horror! for "What a horrifying thing!"?

When using qué in an exclamation to mean "What a...!" before a noun, you never use the indefinite article (un or una). So "What a horror!" or "How horrifying!" translates simply to ¡Qué horror!

Why is there an al (a + el) before perro? I thought the "personal a" was only for people.

The personal a is also used for specific animals that people have an emotional connection to, like pets. Since this is "the dog" (presumably a known pet), it receives the personal a. When the preposition a is followed by the masculine article el, they always combine into al.

Could I say una extraña criatura instead of una criatura extraña?