Breakdown of ¡Qué año tan productivo! Valió la pena.
el año
year
qué
what
tan
as / so
valer
to be worth
productivo
productive
valer la pena
to be worth it
Questions & Answers about ¡Qué año tan productivo! Valió la pena.
Why is there a tan in the middle of ¡Qué año tan productivo!?
In Spanish exclamations that use both a noun and an adjective, the standard structure is ¡Qué + [noun] + tan (or más) + [adjective]!. While you might occasionally hear it without the tan, including it is much more natural. It provides the emphasis we feel in English when saying "What a productive year!" or "What a very productive year!".
Why isn't there a word for "a" right after ¡Qué?
What does pena literally mean in valió la pena?
The noun pena usually means "sorrow", "pity", or "trouble", and the verb valer means "to be worth". The set idiom valer la pena literally translates to "to be worth the sorrow" or "to be worth the trouble". This is the standard Spanish expression for "to be worth it". Here, it is conjugated in the third-person preterite (past tense) as valió.
How could I use this lesson's topic (the perfect infinitive) with valer la pena?
The phrase valer la pena is very frequently followed by an infinitive to specify what was worth the effort. To say "It was worth it to have worked so hard", you simply attach the perfect infinitive (haber + past participle) right after the phrase: Valió la pena haber trabajado tan duro.
Learn ¡Qué año tan productivo! Valió la pena and more in Spanish
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free