¡Parece mentira!
It’s unbelievable! It hardly seems possible!¡Dios mío! or ¡Dios santo!
God! Good God!¡No lo puedo creer!
I just can’t believe it!Some of these expressions convey mild surprise, and almost indifference, for example
¿sí?, ¿de veras?, ¿verdad?, ¡fijate/fijese!, ¡qué bien!. Others, like¡no me digas!,
¡hombre!, ¡vaya sorpresa!, convey a slightly stronger sense of surprise, while¡no!, ¡no
puede ser!, ¡qué raro/extraño!, ¡es increíble!, ¡Dios mío! or¡Dios santo!,¡no lo puedo
creer!... express strong surprise.59.1.1 Latin American usage
Apart from the expressions listed above, which are common in most Spanish-speaking
countries, there are others which are restricted to certain regions, like¡Híjole! (Mexico)
‘wow!’.59.2 Expressing surprise with regard to someone or something
To express ideas such as ‘How strange that they are not here!’, ‘I’m surprised you say
that’, Spanish normally uses a construction in which the expression of surprise is
followed by que and a verb in the subjunctive. The tense of the subjunctive verb will
depend on the time reference: present subjunctive for present or future reference, and
perfect or imperfect subjunctive for past reference. 18.1.4 (p. 85)
¡Qué raro que no estén aquí!
How strange that they’re not here!Me sorprende que digas eso.
I’m surprised you say that.Me extraña que no nos escriba.
I’m surprised he/she hasn’t written to us.
Me asombra que estés aquí.
I’m surprised to see you here.
¡Qué extraño que no estuviera allí!
How strange that he/she wasn’t there!¡No puede ser que haya dicho eso!
I can’t believe he/she has said that!¡Es increíble que se haya comportado de esa manera!
It’s incredible that he/she has behaved like that!¡Parece mentira que haya ganado la lotería!
It hardly seems possible that he/she has won the lottery!Expressing surprise with regard to someone or something 59.2