6 Expressions to show surprise in Spanish

A natural Spanish comes out of you when you know how native speakers express themselves. Today I want to share with you, six expressions to show surprise in Spanish.

The expressions I give you in the video are very common in Medellín, Colombia (The city where I am from).

These words and phrases will help you sound more naturalevery time someone tells you something that causes surprise on you.

Remember these words and phrases

Here are the words to show surprise that you can use in any situation:

  1. ¡No te creo!
  2. ¿En serio?
  3. ¿De verdad?
  4. ¿Cómo?
  5. ¿Qué?
  6. ¡Ay Dios!

Here’s another tip to show surprise

When you watch the video, repeat my intonation, which is the way I say the expressions I’m teaching you. So, when my tone goes up, your tone should go up too.

Imitate my facial expressions and the exact time when I do certain actions, notice that I put my hands on my face and I say: “¿En serio?”.

You can put your hands on your face too, or you could just open your eyes and mouth showing some surprise; but show what you feel with your body, this is very important!

Show your emotions when you speak Spanish.If you don’t do this, you won’t be able to sound natural, it’s going to sound flat and people could even think that you are pretending to feel you are surprised.

Your tone to show surprise

I know in the video, I tell you that your tone should go down at the end of every phrase, but if you’ve heard Spanish for a while, you probably think: “This guy is lying!”.

Well, I say it goes down because, for my accent (from Medellín, Colombia), it actually goes down at the end of every phrase when you show surprise, but have in mind that this could be different in Spanish from other regions or countries.

Diego Cuadros is a blogger and a Spanish online teacher. He uses stories to help Spanish lovers understand fast-speaking native speakers, so they don't freeze and panic in conversations.

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