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| Arup Roy, Lecturer in English Language & Literature, Kanchkura University College |
Through exclamatory sentences, we express our sudden emotion, be it joy, sorrow, anger, wonder, etc.
Ø How beautiful the scenery is!
Ø What a nice scenery it is!
An exclamatory sentence has several structures. Each structure is going to be shown below.
Structure one: How + adjective + pronoun or noun phrase + be + exclamatory sign (!)
- How serious he is!
- How intelligent she is!
- How meritorious the person is!
- How difficult the math is!
- How charming the palace is!
You should the fact that nouns in the examples above have been preceded by the article “the.”
Structure Two: How + adjective + a/an + noun phrase + noun phrase + be + exclamatory sign (!)
- How beautiful a picture it is!
- How thoughtful a person he is!
- How dangerous a snake it is!
Structure
Three: What + a/an + adjective + noun phrase + be + exclamatory sign (!)
Ø What a beautiful picture it is!
Ø What a gentle person he is!
Ø What a good person he was!
Structure Four: What + noun phrase + noun phrase + be + Exclamatory sign (!)
- What a person he is!
- What a book it is!
- What a snake it is!
Structure Five: What + noun phrase + exclamatory sign (!)
- What a luck!
- What an accident!
- What a person!
Structure six: What + a/an + adjective + noun
- What a nice scenery!
- What a long poem!
- What a terrible accident!
Structure seven: How + adjective
- How dangerous!
- How painful!
- How beautiful!
Structure Eight: Were + np + np + exclamatory sign (!)
- Were I a king!
- Were I a rich man!
- Were they educated persons!
Structure Nine: Were + noun phrase + adjective
- Were they rich!
- Were he good enough to earn one million dollars per day!
Structure 10: Had + noun phrase
- Had I the wings of a bird!
- Had I a car!
Exercise:
1. What is an exclamatory
sentence?
a. An exclamatory sentence
asks a question.
b. An exclamatory sentence
expresses wish
c. An exclamatory sentence
expresses our sudden emotion.
d. An exclamatory sentence
describes anything.
2. Which one is the example
of an exclamatory sentence?
a. Do you know her?
b. Let me do the work.
c. Birds are flying in the
sky.
d. What a nice picture it was.
3. Choose the structure of
exclamatory sentence.
a. auxiliary verb + subject
+ main verb + object/complement/adverbial
b. W/H + auxiliary verb +
subject + main verb
c. Subject + verb +
object