Exclaiming About Large Quantities
When expressing shock at a massive amount of something, use the highly expressive, colloquial structure ¡la de... que...!
This translates roughly to "The amount of..." or "The number of...". The pattern is ¡la de + noun + que + conjugated verb + !.
Notice that la de is fixed. It acts as shorthand for la cantidad de (the quantity of), so it stays feminine singular regardless of whether the noun that follows is masculine, feminine, singular, or plural.
| The amount of dresses the actress has! | ¡La de vestidos que tiene la actriz! |
| The amount of money the actor wastes! | ¡La de dinero que desperdicia el actor! |
Celebrity Lifestyles
This structure is perfect for gossiping about a celebrity's excessive wardrobe or the extravagant habits of their entourage.
Before looking at more examples, let's highlight a very useful Spanish verb for talking about fashion:
| to wear for the first time | estrenar |
Now let's put it all together to exclaim about walk-in closets (vestidores), outfits (conjuntos), and entourages (séquitos).
| The number of shoes that the celebrity has in the walk-in closet! | ¡La de zapatos que tiene la celebridad en el vestidor! |
| The number of outfits that she wears for the first time every week! | ¡La de conjuntos que estrena cada semana! |
| The amount of food that that entourage wastes! | ¡La de comida que desperdicia ese séquito! |
| The number of extravagances that that frivolous man says! | ¡La de extravagancias que dice ese hombre tan frívolo! |