Learn Spanish (Spain): ¡Qué espectáculo tan emocionante vimos anoche!

¡Qué espectáculo tan emocionante vimos anoche!

What an exciting show we saw last night!

Breakdown of ¡Qué espectáculo tan emocionante vimos anoche!

qué

what

ver

to see; to watch (TV, a film)

Questions & Answers about ¡Qué espectáculo tan emocionante vimos anoche!

Why are there no accent marks on the past tense of ver like vimos?

Vimos is the 'we' form of ver (to see) in the simple past tense. The verb ver is slightly irregular in this tense. It takes the regular endings for -er/-ir verbs, but because the root is so short, none of its forms use written accent marks: vi, viste, vio, vimos, visteis, vieron.

Why is tan used in the phrase ¡Qué espectáculo tan emocionante!?

In English, you say 'What an exciting show!', putting the adjective before the noun. In Spanish exclamations, the pattern is usually ¡Qué + [noun] + tan + [adjective]! which translates literally to 'What a show so exciting!'. You can also use más instead of tan here to mean the exact same thing.

Could I say emocionado instead of emocionante?

No, because they mean different things! Emocionante means 'exciting' (it describes something that causes the emotion, like a show). Emocionado means 'excited' (it describes how a person feels). Since the show itself is exciting, we must use emocionante.

Is anoche the only way to say 'last night'?