LoginExclamatory Mood
In this article, you'll dive into the exclamatory mood, like 'How amazing!'. Detailed explanations and a quiz are included to test your knowledge.
What Is Exclamatory Mood?
Exclamatory mood is a type of grammatical mood used to convey excitement, surprise, or other strong feelings. Exclamatory sentences are often identified by an exclamation mark at the end, which signals to the reader or listener that the sentence should be read or spoken with a strong emphasis or tone.
How to Identify Exclamatory Mood?
The use of the exclamatory mood is often indicated by a change in the speaker's voice tone in spoken language, which conveys a strong emotion or feeling. However, when reading or writing a passage, the presence of an exclamation mark at the end of a sentence is typically the most reliable indicator of the exclamatory mood.
What a nice dress!
She shouted at me!
Tone
Sometimes it can be difficult to determine whether a sentence is declarative or exclamatory, particularly when declarative sentences are followed by an exclamation mark. In these cases, to make the mood of the sentence clear, you can indicate emphasis on certain words using italics or bold font to highlight key phrases.
She is married to John!
The church is burned down!
'What' vs. 'How
There are some differences between these two exclamatory words. First of all, 'how' is more formal than 'what.' More importantly, 'what' acts as a modifier in a noun phrase, while 'how' modifies other adjectives, adverbs (of degree), and verbs, which can collectively act as an external modifier for a noun phrase. Compare the examples:
What a difficult decision you are facing!
As you can see, "what" appears as a modifier for the noun "decision."
How difficult a decision you are facing!
In this sentence, "how" does not directly modifies the noun; rather, it modifies the adjective "difficult" and they collectively modify the noun phrase "a decision."
Additionally, the modifiers formed with 'how' can only modify singular, countable nouns; while 'what' can appear as a determiner for singular, plural, and uncountable nouns equally.
What brilliant ideas you have!
You cannot use how with a plural noun "How brilliant ideas"
What nonsense you're speaking!
'Nonsense" is an uncountable noun. You cannot use a modifier with "how" before it "How complete nonsense"
Word Order
When an exclamative phrase is the subject of the clause, it naturally comes at the beginning and the word order is similar to declarative sentences. But when it is not the subject, it must be fronted to appear at the beginning of the clause, followed by the subject and the verb. Here are some examples:
How lovely she looks!
Here, "how lovely" is a subject complement, but it is fronted to appear at the beginning of the clause.
How few truly understand me!
Here, "how few" is the subject of the sentence, the sentence corresponds to the declarative "few truly understand me."
Inversion of the subject and auxiliary is less common but nevertheless grammatically possible in exclamatory clauses.
How often have I told you this!
What a fool was I to believe him!
Warning!
When 'how' is modifying the verb in an exclamatory sentence, inversion is not possible, because the structure becomes the same as an interrogative sentence.
How you hurt my feelings! → How did you hurt my feelings?
The second question is no longer exclamatory, but a question.
Exclamatives without verbs
Sometimes English speakers shorten exclamatory sentences by omitting the verb in exclamations that contain 'what' and 'how'. In this case, an exclamatory expression is formed, typically with an adjective or noun phrase. Take a look at some examples:
What a disaster!
How funny!
What a beautiful day!
Interjections
'Interjections' are words or sounds used to express strong feelings such as pain, anger, surprise, or disgust. Interjections are sometimes followed by an exclamation mark to emphasize the strong emotion being conveyed.
Interjections can be used alone or in combination with other words to form exclamatory statements. When used in combination with other words, interjections are typically separated by a comma. Take a look at the examples:
Ouch! it hurt.
Ugh!
Wow, look at the city!
Nailed it, bingo!
Exclamatory Questions
An exclamation question is a type of interrogative sentence that is followed not by a question mark, but by an exclamation mark. This creates a sentence that follows the structure of interrogatives but conveys the meaning and emotion of an exclamatory sentence. For example:
Isn't he a wise man!
Boy am I stupid!
Punctuation
Do not use (?!) or (!?) at the end of the exclamation questions, unless it is a rather informal text.
Review
Exclamatory sentences are used to convey strong emotions. There are different ways to make exclamatory sentences; the most common is using "what" and "how."
formality | Structure | |
|---|---|---|
What | less formal | part of a noun phrase |
How | more formal | modifies an adjective, verb, or other adverb |
How little they care about me!
What a mess this is!
Quiz:
Which sentence is not in the exclamatory mood?
What a stunning performance!
How beautifully she sings!
She sings beautifully.
Wow, that was incredible!
Sort the words to form an exclamatory sentence using "what".
Choose the correct exclamatory sentence with "how".
How a terrible mistake!
How terrible a mistake!
How terrible mistakes!
How terribly mistake!
Fill the blanks with "what" or "how" to form exclamatory sentences.
an amazing performance!
beautifully she sings!
incredible this painting is!
a gorgeous sunset!
Oh
I missed you!
Match each sentence with its correct description.
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