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?