Everything you need to use What and How exclamations correctly in English, with the word order rules that make them sound natural, and exam practice.
Exclamative sentences express strong feeling, surprise, admiration or frustration, using "What" or "How" in a structure that looks like a question but isn't one. "What a beautiful day!" and "How interesting!" both follow fixed grammatical patterns, get the word order wrong and the sentence sounds distinctly foreign, even though the individual words are simple.
"What" introduces an exclamation about a noun, and needs the indefinite article "a/an" for singular countable nouns.
| Structure | Example |
|---|---|
| What + a/an + adjective + singular noun | What a beautiful day! |
| What + adjective + plural/uncountable noun (no article) | What lovely flowers! / What terrible weather! |
| What + a/an + noun (no adjective needed) | What a surprise! |
"How" introduces an exclamation about an adjective or adverb, never a noun directly.
| Structure | Example |
|---|---|
| How + adjective | How interesting! / How strange! |
| How + adjective + subject + be | How beautiful this garden is! |
| How + adverb + subject + verb | How quickly she runs! / How well he sings! |
| Type | Example |
|---|---|
| Short reaction exclamations | Wow! Amazing! Incredible! No way! |
| So + adjective (informal alternative to How) | It's so beautiful! (less formal than "How beautiful it is!") |
| Such + noun phrase (informal alternative to What) | It's such a beautiful day! (see our guide to So vs Such for the full rule) |
For the complete rule on choosing between "so" and "such," see our dedicated guide to So vs Such.
| ❌ Incorrect | ✅ Correct | Why |
|---|---|---|
| What beautiful is the view! | What a beautiful view! | "What" exclamations use normal statement word order, not question word order ("is the view"). |
| What shame! | What a shame! | A singular countable noun after "what" needs the article "a/an." |
| How a beautiful garden! | What a beautiful garden! / How beautiful this garden is! | "How" is never followed directly by a noun; use "What" for nouns. |
| How beautiful is this garden! | How beautiful this garden is! | "How" exclamations also use statement word order, not question order. |
| Exam | How This Is Tested | Sample Question |
|---|---|---|
| Cambridge A2 Key / B1 Preliminary | Exclamative structures appear in Reading and Listening dialogues expressing reaction and opinion. | Recognising "What a great idea!" as a natural reaction in a conversation. |
| IELTS Speaking | Natural exclamations add authentic, native-like expression to spoken answers. | "What an interesting question!" as a natural conversational opener. |
| Trinity GESE/ISE (SELT) | Natural reactions and exclamations make spoken answers sound more genuine and less rehearsed. | "How lovely!" as a natural reaction during conversation. |
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“What a beautiful day!” / “What terrible weather!”
“How beautiful!” / “How quickly she learns!”
Exclamatives are not ordinary questions: “How good it is!” rather than question inversion.
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