Exclamatory Sentence: What It Is and How To Use It

Do you know what an exclamatory sentence is? This article will provide you with all of the information you need on exclamatory sentences, including its definition, usage, example sentences, and more!

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What is an exclamatory sentence?

According to Your Dictionary, there are many different types of sentences:

  •  Declarative Sentences
  •  Interrogative Sentences
  •  Exclamatory Sentences
  •  Imperative Sentences
  •  Simple Sentences
  •  Compound Sentences
  •  Complex Sentences
  •  Compound-Complex Sentences

Today we will explore the exclamatory sentence. These provide information and express strong emotions. These sentences end with an exclamation mark at the end of a sentence instead of a full stop. These are rarely used in academic writing like essays. An exclamatory sentence expresses anger, expresses sorrow, expresses joy, expresses surprise, elation, confusion, or a different kind of emotion. These are not used in business correspondence, but saved for informal correspondence like a text conversation where you would use emojis, in everyday speech, or adverts. You can think of it as a forceful version of a declarative sentence.

Many different languages also contain words that mean exclamatory. You may notice that some of these translations of exclamatory look and sound similar to one another. These are called cognates, which are words and phrases in different languages that likely have the same root or language of origin, causing them to sound the same. The below list of translations of exclamatory is provided by Word Sense

  •  Swedish: utrop‎ (neut.)
  •  Spanish: exclamación‎ (fem.)
  •  Bulgarian: възклицание‎ (neut.)
  •  Finnish: huudahdus‎, parahdus‎
  •  Italian: esclamazione‎ (fem.)
  •  Tagalog: bulalas‎
  •  Belarusian: выгук‎
  •  German: Ausruf‎ (masc.)
  •  Malay: jeritan‎
  •  Greek: επιφώνημα‎ (neut.), αναφώνηση‎ (fem.)
  •  Mandarin: 叫喊‎ (jiàohǎn), 感嘆‎, 感叹‎ (gǎntàn)
  •  Polish: okrzyk‎ (masc.)
  •  Portuguese: exclamação‎ (fem.)
  •  Ukrainian: вигук‎
  •  Russian: восклица́ние‎ (neut.)
  •  Czech: zvolání‎ (neut.)
  •  French: exclamation‎ (fem.)
  •  Romanian: exclamare‎ (fem.), exclamație‎ (fem.)

What is an example of an exclamatory sentence?

An exclamatory sentence can be used in many different contexts in the English language. Trying to use a word or literary technique in a sentence is one of the best ways to memorize what it is, but you can also try making flashcards or quizzes that test your knowledge. Try using this term of the day in a sentence today! Below are a couple of examples of exclamatory sentences that can help get you started incorporating this tool into your everyday use.  Take a look at these exclamatory sentence examples from Your Dictionary

  •  That birthday cake was so good!
  •  I got the concert tickets to see Tiny Stripe!
  •  What a great car!
  •  I finished the puzzle yesterday!
  •  Hah, Sara! What a coincidence to see you here!
  •  Oh heaven! I thought she had a level head.
  •  What beautiful weather! A real shift from yesterday.
  •  What a cute puppy!
  •  How slow they crawl!
  •  Eugh, that bug is so ugly!
  •  I love that purse, Ella!
  •  Happy birthday, Amy!
  •  Sheldon’s gift was so amazing!
  •  I hate you!
  •  My favorite show is on tonight!
  •  Look at this blanket I knit!
  •  I’m so excited for Halloween!
  •  Ice cream sundaes are my favorite!
  •  Wow, I really love you!
  •  What a lovely bouquet of flowers!
  •  How bright they’ve grown in the sunlight!
  •  You’re such a liar!
  •  How well he listens!
  •  What a happy ending!
  •  Fantastic, let’s go!
  •  How fast you ran!
  •  Your puppy is such a cutie!
  •  I’m so mad right now!
  •  Thank you, Sheldon!
  •  That’s such a gorgeous ring!
  •  What an ugly bug!
  •  He’s such a kind soul!
  •  That hurts!
  •  Jeepers!
  •  I’m adopting a kitten this weekend!
  •  I can’t wait to go to the amusement park tomorrow!
  •  Ugh, that exam was brutal!

What are other grammatical techniques and devices?

There are many different literary and grammatical techniques and devices that you might see when you are reading prose or poetry. It is important to recognize these terms because they are always used for some purpose. Knowing these devices can help readers understand the author’s deeper meaning and why they are using such a device. Take a look at the below list of grammatical devices from OED and see how many you know! Then try researching ones that are unfamiliar to you. 

  •    proper noun | proper name
  •   optative
  •   cataphoric
  •   count noun
  •   gerund
  •   noun (n.)
  •   abstract
  •   absolute (absol.)
  •   combining form (comb. form)
  •   postmodify | postmodifier
  •   past tense
  •   similative
  •   anticipatory
  •   noun phrase
  •   demonstrative
  •   locative
  •   personal pronoun
  •   prepositional passive
  •   compound sentence
  •   indefinite
  •   pronoun (pron.)
  •   main compound sentence
  •   superlative
  •   that-compound sentence
  •   past participle
  •   mass noun
  •   collective noun
  •   element
  •   modify | modifier
  •   combination
  •   head
  •   gender
  •   common noun
  •   main verb
  •   compound sentence
  •   special use
  •   subjunctive
  •   prefix
  •   participial adjective
  •   agree | agreement
  •   zero
  •   accusative
  •   filler
  •   prepositional phrase
  •   causative
  •   indirect object
  •   direct speech
  •   compound sentence
  •   intransitive
  •   protasis
  •   parenthetical | parenthetically
  •   cognate object
  •   definite article
  •   tense
  •   third-person
  •   premodify | premodifier
  •   adjective
  •   antecedent
  •   declarative
  •   complement
  •   phrase (phr.)
  •   pleonasm | pleonastic
  •   indirect question
  •   subordinate compound sentence
  •   dative
  •   pro-form
  •   interrogative
  •   attributive
  •   instrumental
  •   phrasal verb
  •   perfect
  •   person
  •   auxiliary verb | auxiliary
  •   compound | compounding
  •   second person
  •   intensifier
  •   transitive
  •   to-infinitive
  •   singular
  •   conditional
  •   present participle
  •   direct question
  •   direct object
  •   object | direct object | indirect object
  •   verb (v.)
  •   bare infinitive
  •   construed (const., constr.)
  •   prepositional object
  •   double object
  •   positive
  •   simple
  •   verbal noun
  •   adverbial | adverbially
  •   finite
  •   indirect speech
  •   determiner
  •   concrete
  •   genitive
  •   ellipsis | elliptical
  •   possessive adjective
  •   possessive
  •   comparative
  •   morpheme
  •   dual
  •   first person
  •   indicative
  •   inflection | inflected | inflectional
  •   progressive
  •   stem
  •   copular verb | copula
  •   anaphoric
  •   apposition
  •   subject
  •   collocation | collocate
  •   non-finite
  •   conjunction (conj.)
  •   non-referential
  •   sentence adverb |sentence adverbial
  •   reflexive
  •   modal verb | modal auxiliary verb | modal auxiliary
  •   nominal relative | nominal relative compound sentence
  •   subjective
  •   periphrasis | periphrastic
  •   complementary
  •   quasi-
  •   predicative
  •   active
  •   number
  •   adverb (adv.)
  •   interjection
  •   passive
  •   base form
  •   case
  •   apodosis and protasis
  •   infinitive
  •   neuter
  •   imperative (imper.)
  •   unmarked genitive
  •   indirect passive
  •   feminine
  •   mood
  •   nominative
  •   appositive
  •   impersonal (impers.)
  •   relative
  •   objective
  •   possessive pronoun
  •   article
  •   passive infinitive
  •   participle | past participle | present participle
  •   agent noun
  •   masculine
  •   preposition (prep.)
  •   vocative
  •   present tense
  •   construction
  •   part of speech
  •   plural
  •   parasynthetic

Overall, an exclamatory sentence is an utterance that expresses strong emotion.

Sources:

  1. Glossary of grammatical terms | OED 
  2. exclamation: meaning, origin, translation | Word Sense 
  3. Types of Sentences | Your Dictionary
  4. Exclamatory Sentence Examples | Your Dictionary