Breakdown of ¡Qué coral tan bonito hay aquí!
bonito
pretty
qué
what
aquí
here
tan
as / so (degree)
haber
there to be (existential)
el coral
the coral
Questions & Answers about ¡Qué coral tan bonito hay aquí!
Why do we use tan here instead of muy?
In Spanish exclamations following the pattern ¡Qué + noun + adjective!, you must connect the noun and the adjective using either tan or más. English speakers often try to use muy or include an article like un, but the correct structure is ¡Qué coral tan bonito! or ¡Qué coral más bonito! to express what a beautiful coral it is.
I have seen coral used as a feminine noun before. Why is it masculine here?
The gender changes the meaning of this word. As a masculine noun, el coral refers to the marine organism or reef, which fits this sentence perfectly. As a feminine noun, la coral refers to a choir or musical chorale.
Could I use está instead of hay in this sentence?
It would sound unnatural for this specific meaning. Hay is the impersonal form of haber used to declare the mere existence of something, matching the English phrase there is. You use it when spontaneously marveling at finding or noticing something in your environment. If you used está, you would be stating the location of a specific, previously known coral, rather than exclaiming about its existence here.
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