50 + Spanish Exclamations For More Expressive Spanish

One common stereotype of Spanish speakers is that they're loud, passionate and affectionate.

The truth is that even if you're learning Spanish you can be as expressive as you want to be. But you'll need some handy little words to do so.

“What are they?”, you may ask. Well, I’m talking about Spanish exclamations!

In this article, we’ll be focusing on what Spanish exclamations are, the different kinds and how their use changes in different Spanish varieties. All with plenty of examples!

¡Órale! We better get cracking.

Prefer watching videos to reading? In the video below from the StoryLearning Spanish YouTube channel, you can watch our awesome teacher Beatriz teach about interjections in a story. Hope you like it!

What Are Spanish Exclamations (Or Interjections)?

Spanish exclamations (also know as interjections) are a group of words of different kinds that we use to express how we're feeling, to draw attention to ourselves or to something, or even just to say “hi” or “goodbye”.

They're a sign of a sudden, spontaneous reaction and, because they aren’t grammatically connected to the phrase that follows them, they are invariable and hold their own meaning. 

What does it mean that interjections are invariable? Well, these are words that don’t need to be in agreement in gender and number with another word that you may say after them.

For example, when you want to greet someone, you would say ¡Hola! no matter if you are talking about one person or two people.

You may also find one-word interjections or others formed by more than one word, but a common trait is that they are short and concise. Many of them only have one syllable! This is the case of ¡ah!, ¡ey!, ¡oh!, or ¡shh!.

In general, interjections are accompanied by an exclamation mark or a question mark, because we use them as an honest, sometimes passionate reaction to something.

One key thing to keep in mind is that the same interjection can change its meaning depending on which punctuation appears next to it, like in ¡eh! (hey!) and ¿eh? (huh?).

Types Of Spanish Exclamations

There are two different kinds of interjections you may encounter: propias (proper) and impropias (improper).

Proper interjections are only used as such and don’t come from other words. This is the case of ¡hola! (yes, “hello” falls into this category as well) and ¡guau! (wow!).

Other proper interjections originated from real life, such as the written expression of sounds (called onomatopeyas or “onomatopoeia”): muak (the sound we make when we kiss) or ¡boom! if we are talking about an explosion. 

On the other hand, there are improper interjections, which come from other preexisting words, such as nouns, Spanish adjectives, Spanish verbs or even Spanish adverbs.

Here’s a list of common examples:

• ¡hombre! (man!)
• ¡venga! (come on!)
• ¡vale! (okay!)
• ¡bravo! (bravo!)

Interjections In Different Spanish-Speaking Countries

Have you noticed that Australians tend to use the interjection “mate” but Americans usually use “dude”?

Well, different Spanish-Speaking countries use their own interjections and expressions to communicate with others. So you may want to focus on the most useful ones for the dialect you're interested in.

For example, if you live in the southern states of the US, you might want to learn interjections commonly found in Mexican Spanish.

However, if you plan to visit your Spanish friend this summer, Spanish from Spain is the thing you need. Now, I’m going to teach you some popular interjections for different dialects, so pay attention!

By the way, to know more about the differences between the main Spanish dialects, check out my post on Spain Spanish vs Mexican Spanish.

Common Interjections In Spain

Let’s begin with the most important one: vale, which is used to express acceptance, understanding or that you are okay with something someone proposed:

―¿Salimos a bailar?

―¡Vale!

 “Shall we go out dancing?”

“Sure!”

Then, there's guay, an interjection used to express acceptance or even admiration. It can be used to react to good news and it is usually accompanied by the word qué:

―¡Me saqué un 10 en el examen!

―¡Qué guay!

 “I got an A+ in the exam!”

“How cool!”

You can also learn the interjection ole or olé. You may have heard this one in movies, with a torero who taunts a bull with a red cloak. It's used to express celebration and it’s a sign of cheer.

For example:

―¡Ole! Me gusta tu corte de cabello.

 “Hey! I like your haircut.”

You also have hombre, an improper interjection that is used to express either surprise or disapproval:

―¡Hombre! Me asustaste.

 “Man, you scared me!”

After this one, there's the famous vaya, which also expresses surprise;

―¡Vaya! No sabía que sabías bailar tango.

 “Wow! I didn’t know you knew how to dance tango.”

Finally, there's venga, an interjection we use when we want someone to hurry up:

―¡Venga, que llegaremos tarde a la función!

“Come on, we’ll be late for the show!”

Common Interjections In Latin America

First of all, there's the Latin American equivalent of vale, which is dale, with a D. But you can also use it to hurry someone up or to encourage someone to do something, like this,

―¡Dale, que vamos a perder el tren!

 “Come on, we're going to miss the train!”

Then, there's dios or dios mío, which are used to express surprise, regret or indignation:

―¡No encontramos a Carmen por ningún lado!

 ―Dios mío…

 “We can’t find Carmen anywhere!”

“Oh my god…”

We also have órale, which is very popular in Mexico and is used to get someone’s attention or to get someone to hurry up:

―¡Órale! La cena es a las 9.

“Come on! Dinner is at 9.”

Finally, there's guácala, aj or qué asco, which are used to express extreme disgust (the English onomatopoeia “ew” is also used in Spanish):

 ―¡Guácala! Hay un gusano en mi manzana.

“Ew! There's a worm inside my apple.”

List Of Spanish Exclamations

Now you know a bit more about how to use exclamations in a sentence and which ones to use in different dialects, time to learn some more. Here’s the full list of more than fifty Spanish interjections for you to learn:

Spanish interjection	English meaning	English translation
¡ah!	amazement, surprise, pleasure	ah!
¡ay!	pain, fear	ouch!
¡guay! / ¡guau! / ¡vaya!	acceptance, surprise	wow!
¡eh!	rejection, disapproval, surprise	hey!
¡oiga!	call for attention	hey!
¿eh?	surprise, question	huh?
¡hey!	warning, greeting	hey!
¡ajá!	approval, agreement	uh-uh
¡uy! / ¡ups!	surprise, mistake	oops!
¡puaj! / ¡guácala! / ¡aj!	disgust, displeasure	yuk!
¡qué asco!	disgust	gross!
¡ojalá!	desire	I wish!/Fingers crossed!
¡uf!	relief, fatigue	phew!
¡oh! / oh…¡uh! / uh…	pleasant surprise, amazement, admiration / unpleasant surprise (depending on whether the tone is rising or falling)	oh!/oh…
¡bah!	disdain, contempt	bah!
¡zas! / ¡chas!	blow, punch	bang!/kapow!
¡pum! / ¡boom!	explosion	boom!
¡chist!	silence, call for attention	shh!/psst!
¡hombre!	surprise, disapproval	man!
¡dale! / ¡vale!	acceptance, encouragement, understanding, rush	okay!
¡sale!	acceptance, agreement (Mexico)	cool!/sure!
¡hasta pronto!	farewell	see you soon!
¡Dios mío!	surprise	oh my God!
¡santo cielo!	surpris	My God!
¡madre mía!	surprise	mother of God!
¡ay de mí!	sorrow, unhappiness	woe is me!
¡ojo!	warning	look out!
¡cuidado!	warning	watch out!
¡bravo!	joy, celebration	bravo!
¡magnífico!	celebration, acceptance	magnificent!
¡estupendo!	celebration, acceptance	stupendous!
¡formidable!	celebration, acceptance	formidable!
¡diantres! / ¡maldita sea!	frustration, contempt	darn it!
¡caray!	indignation	good heavens!
¡caramba!	unpleasant surprise	yikes!
¡diablos!	frustration, contempt	hell!/damn
¡mierda!	frustration, contempt	shit!
¡recórcholis!	surprise, annoyance	jeez!
miau	the sound a cat makes	meow
cuac	the sound a duck makes	quack
mu	the sounds a cow makes	moo
oink	the sounds a pig makes	oink

Spanish Exclamations: Add Some Passion To Your Spanish

And that’s a wrap! You're ready to be as expressive as you like in Spanish, just like a native would.

But keep in mind I only gave you a few examples of interjections, but there are many more to choose from!

If you want to learn more or if you want to see these expressions in context, then make sure that you use the StoryLearning method and learn Spanish by reading stories.

As you read books in Spanish or Spanish short stories, you'll see these Spanish exclamations (and others!) over and over. So they'll soon become second nature.

And if you like reading and still need a bit of help with interjections or any other aspect of the language, my course, Spanish Uncovered, can help. Click here for a free 7-day trial.

Olly Richards

Creator of the StoryLearning® Method

Olly Richards is a renowned polyglot and language learning expert with over 15 years of experience teaching millions through his innovative StoryLearning® method. He is the creator of StoryLearning, one of the world's largest language learning blogs with 500,000+ monthly readers.

Olly has authored 30+ language learning books and courses, including the bestselling "Short Stories" series published by Teach Yourself.

When not developing new teaching methods, Richards practices what he preaches—he speaks 8 languages fluently and continues learning new ones through his own methodology.