In English exclamations show strong feeling and often use inversion or special words to add emphasis. This guide covers common patterns and useful examples.
Basic Exclamations
Basic exclamations use what or how to highlight a noun or an adjective and keep the natural order. They express surprise, admiration, or other strong reactions in a clear way.
What Exclamations
What exclamations focus on a noun or noun phrase and keep the sentence positive or negative to match the feeling. They work well for showing amazement at size, number, or quality.
How Exclamations
How exclamations highlight an adjective, adverb, or sometimes a verb phrase to emphasize manner, degree, or intensity. They keep the sentence order and add natural force to the feeling.
Inversion in Exclamations
Inversion flips the usual order of subject and auxiliary for extra emphasis and style, often after expressions like so, such, little, never, and rarely. It gives exclamations a dramatic or formal tone.
So / Such
So and such amplify adjectives and nouns and trigger inversion when followed by clauses. Such pairs naturally with noun phrases while so works with adjectives or adverbs.
Little / Never / Rarely
Words like little, never, and rarely turn attention to an unexpected amount or occurrence and cause inversion to stress the contrast. They suit emphatic or ironic exclamations.
Other Emphatic Patterns
Other emphatic patterns use phrases like how come, here comes, and there goes to turn attention and create lively, spoken-style exclamations. They often rely on normal word order plus intonation.
How Come
How come asks for reason in an informal way and can function as an exclamation when followed by a surprising result or situation. It's common in speech and adds natural curiosity.
Here Comes / There Goes
Phrases like here comes and there goes announce arrival or departure with flair, often used when something notable happens. They pair with inversion of the subject and create vivid moments.
Summary
Exclamations in English use what and how for clear emphasis, inversion for drama, and set phrases for lively effect. Practicing these patterns helps you sound natural and expressive in both speech and writing.
What Exclamations
How Exclamations
Here Comes / There Goes
Last updated: Fri Oct 24, 2025