Exclamative Sentences: What...! & How...!
Level A2 · Sentence Basics
English has two special structures for reacting with strong feeling — surprise, admiration, disappointment — to a quality or quantity: What...! and How...! What a beautiful day! and How kind you are! are not questions; they are exclamations, and they follow their own fixed word order, different from both statements and questions.
Two patterns, depending on what follows:
- What + a/an + adjective + singular countable noun (+ subject + verb): What a beautiful day (it is)! What an amazing goal (he scored)!
- What + adjective + plural or uncountable noun (no a/an): What lovely flowers! What terrible weather!
- How + adjective (+ subject + verb): How interesting (that is)! How kind you are!
- How + adverb (+ subject + verb): How quickly she runs! How well he sings!
- The subject and verb after the exclamative phrase are very often dropped in short, natural reactions: What a day! How lovely! A related, more spoken structure is so + adjective for emphasis (This is SO exciting!), but that's a separate, lighter pattern.
The most common mistake is inverting the subject and verb as if the sentence were a question: What a day is it! and How lovely are you! are both wrong. Exclamatives keep statement word order — subject before verb: What a day it is! How lovely you are! A second frequent mistake is using a/an with a plural or uncountable noun after What: What a lovely flowers! is wrong because flowers is plural — drop the article: What lovely flowers!
Look for a sentence beginning with What or How that expresses surprise, admiration, or strong feeling about a quality, often ending in an exclamation mark. Check what follows: a singular countable noun needs a/an after What (What a goal!); a plural or uncountable noun takes no article (What flowers!, What weather!). Then confirm the word order after the exclamative phrase stays in statement order — subject before verb — never inverted like a question.