Meaning & usage
なんて expresses strong surprise or emotion, equivalent to 'what a' or 'how' in exclamations like なんて大きい船 or なんて高い. It comes before an i-adjective like 高い, a na-adjective stem plus な like きれいな, or a noun phrase, and the sentence often closes with んだ, んだろう, or んでしょう after i-adjectives and なんだ, なんだろう, or なんでしょう after nouns and na-adjectives. It is colloquial and common in speech, so なのだろう sounds stiff by comparison and learners should keep the casual なんて with なんだろう style endings.
Example sentences 6
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あれはなんて大きい船なんだろう。
What a big ship that is!
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あの山はなんて高いんだ。
How tall that mountain is!
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あなたはなんて背が高いんでしょう。
How tall you are!
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なんてばかな子なんだ、あいつは！
What a stupid boy he is!
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なんて美しい町なんだろう！
What a beautiful town!
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なんてきれいな町なんだろう！
What a beautiful town!
In past JLPT papers
This came up in 3 past exam questions.
