Breakdown of ¡Qué narizota y qué orejotas tiene ese villano!
y
and
tener
to have
qué
what
ese
that (masculine)
el villano
villain
la nariz
nose
la oreja
ear
Questions & Answers about ¡Qué narizota y qué orejotas tiene ese villano!
How did nariz and oreja change to become narizota and orejotas?
Both nariz (nose) and oreja (ear) are feminine nouns. To make them augmentative (meaning "big" or "large"), we add the feminine suffix -ota. For oreja, we drop the final vowel before adding the suffix to get orejota (and add -s for the plural). For nariz, which ends in a consonant, we just add -ota directly to the end.
Why doesn't the 'z' in narizota change to a 'c', like it does in the plural narices?
The translation says "What a big nose." Why isn't there a word for "a" (una) after Qué?
In English, we use "What a..." for singular nouns in exclamations. Spanish doesn't use the indefinite article (un or una) after qué in this type of phrase. You just attach qué directly to the noun: ¡Qué narizota! (What a big nose!).
Do the -ota endings here just mean the villain's features are physically big?
They definitely mean large in size, but augmentative suffixes like -ote and -ota often add a subjective feeling. Here, talking about a villano (villain), the suffixes give a slightly comical, exaggerated, or ugly vibe to his features, rather than just stating a neutral fact about their size.
Why is the verb tiene placed before the subject ese villano?
In Spanish exclamations and questions, the word order is often flipped so the verb comes before the subject. While ese villano tiene... is grammatically possible, putting the verb first (...tiene ese villano!) sounds much more natural and dramatic in an exclamation like this.
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