MULTIMEDIA-ENGLISH
ACTIVITY SHEET (created by the user: Profe)

Before doing this activity you may need to read the text you will find at the end


  SmartMemo
Exclamations with HOW / WHAT -Spanish
Focus Grammar
Description There are different ways of making exclamations in Spanish. See if you can find the English equivalent using HOW or WHAT (but don't change the verb!). SPANISH - ENGLISH
Instructions 1- Look at these Spanish exclamations and try to say the same in English 2- Move your mouse over the black button to check your answer. 3- If you were right, click on the green button, if wrong, click on the red.
 
Item Match Comments
¡Qué mala suerte! How unlucky! LUCKY= Afortunado (con suerte)
UNLUCKY= Desafortunado (con mala suerte)

Como UNLUCKY es un adjetivo, usamos HOW
¡Qué sonrisa más bonita! What a beautiful smile!
¡Qué guapa eres! How beautiful you are!
¡Madre que casa más grande! What a big house!
¡Qué alto está tu hijo! How tall your son is!
¡Qué casa más grande tienes! What a big house you've got!
¡Qué cielo tan azul! What a blue sky! "Sky" is used as a countable noun, it even has a plural form "the skies":
- Tomorrow, we will have clear skies in Dorset and a bit of rain in Hampshire
 
¡Qué hombre más alto! What a tall man!
¿Kevin con Susie? ¡Qué raro! Kevin with Susie? How strange!
¡Qué sonrisa más bonita tienes! What a beautiful smile you've got!
¡Qué pelo tan bonito tienes! What nice hair you've got!
¡Qué casa más vieja! What an old house!
¡Qué ojos más verdes tienes! What green eyes you have!
¡Qué grande es tu casa! How big your house is!
¡Qué pequeños son estos libros! What small books these are! also: How small these books are!
Total number of items: 15
This is an activity from Multimedia-English www.multimedia-english.com
 

We make exclamations using HOW and WHAT
 
HOW + adjectives

- How nice!
- How nice it is!
- How tall that tree is!
- How big your house is!
 
  WHAT (a) + nouns

the article "a" is only used with countable singular nouns, as usual
 
- What a surprise!
- What a big house you've got!
- What stupid things you say!
- What beer!

since they're not questions, there is no inversion!!!

- How big that tree is ! What a big car you have ! (exclamation, no inversion)
- How big is that tree !
- How big is that tree?  (question, inversion)

Compare:

- How beautiful she is  (how + beautiful: adjective)
- What a beautiful girl she is  (what + a beautiful girl: noun)