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El abuelo tiene ochenta años, ¡qué suerte!

El abuelo tiene ochenta años, ¡qué suerte!
The grandfather is eighty years old, what luck!
From Lesson 80:Exclamations (¡qué...!)·Spanish (Spain)

Questions & Answers about El abuelo tiene ochenta años, ¡qué suerte!

Why is there no word for "a" in ¡qué suerte!?
In Spanish exclamations, you never put an article like un or una between qué and the noun. To say "what a..." or "what...", you just use qué directly followed by the noun, like ¡qué suerte!.
Does qué change its ending to match the feminine noun suerte?
No, the exclamatory word qué is invariable. It never changes, regardless of whether the noun or adjective that follows it is masculine, feminine, singular, or plural.
I see tiene ochenta años. Why use the verb for "to have" instead of "to be"?
This is a common trip-up! In Spanish, people don't "be" an age; they "have" years. You must always use the verb tener (to have) for ages, making the literal translation "The grandfather has eighty years."
Why does the opening exclamation mark ( ¡ ) only appear halfway through the sentence?
In Spanish, opening exclamation and question marks go exactly where the exclamation or question actually begins. Because El abuelo tiene ochenta años is just a normal statement, the ¡ only brackets the exclamatory part: ¡qué suerte!.

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