Exclamative Sentences

An exclamative sentence presents a reaction as intense, surprising, admirable, alarming, or otherwise outside what the speaker expected. Catalan can build that reaction around a noun with quin or quant, around a property or event with com and que, or around a contradicted expectation with emphatic si.

English relies heavily on “what” and “how.” Catalan divides that work among several forms, and the form chosen tells the listener what is being evaluated: a kind of thing, a quantity, a degree, or the truth of an entire proposition.

Quin: evaluating a noun

Quin introduces an exclamative noun phrase and agrees with its noun in gender and number: quin, quina, quins, quines. There is normally no article between quin and the noun. The same gender-and-number principles appear in basic adjective agreement, although here they apply to a determiner.

The noun phrase can stand alone when the situation supplies the rest: Quina barra! (“What nerve!”), Quina llàstima! (“What a shame!”). A fuller clause often contains que: Quina paciència que tens! The que links the evaluated noun phrase to the proposition; it is not the accented interrogative què.

English “what a” tempts learners to insert an article, but Catalan says quin dia, never quin un dia. An adjective commonly follows with més or tan: Quin dia més llarg!; Quina resposta tan elegant!

Quant: reacting to quantity

Before a noun, quant agrees in the same four-way pattern: quant temps, quanta feina, quants llibres, quantes persones. In an exclamation it normally presents the amount as strikingly high.

To react explicitly to a small amount, Catalan normally evaluates poc instead: Que poca llum que entra en aquest despatx! (“So little light comes into this office!”). This is a que + poc exclamative, not an agreeing form of exclamative quant.

When it modifies a verb rather than a noun, quant is invariable: Quant has canviat! In ordinary speech, com is often the more spontaneous option: Com has canviat! Both evaluate degree, whereas interrogative quant? requests an answer.

Com: manner and degree

Exclamative com highlights the striking manner or degree of an event. It has no written accent. Intonation, context, and the absence of a real information request distinguish it from interrogative com? (“how?”).

The last example uses a characteristically Catalan degree construction: com + en + ser + de + adjective. The clitic en anticipates the property introduced by de difícil. This is not an English-style inversion and the clitic is not optional in that construction.

Neutral Aquest nen corre molt quan veu l'autobús simply states a high degree. Reordered Com corre, aquest nen! places the degree expression first as exclamative focus and leaves the subject after the verb as an afterthought-like topic. The comma reflects the intonational break.

Exclamative que: direct evaluation

Unaccented que can introduce an adjective or adverb as the focus of a reaction. A second que may link that focused expression to a full clause.

Que bonic! is a complete elliptical reaction. Write que without an accent: accented què is an interrogative or relative pronoun with a different function. Compare Que bé que cuina! (“How well he/she cooks!”) with Què cuina? (“What is he/she cooking?”).

The complementizer is optional in patterns such as Que bé (que) sona! The shorter Que bé sona! is especially spontaneous in speech, while Que bé que sona! makes the exclamative architecture more explicit; both are standard. Do not imitate Spanish punctuation: contemporary Catalan normally writes only the closing mark !.

Emphatic si: contradicting an assumption

Independent si can introduce an emphatic exclamation when the speaker insists that a proposition is obviously true or counters what someone has implied. It is especially conversational (informal) and often sounds like “but it really is…” or “why, it's…”. It is not a conditional clause waiting for a result.

In Si plou, ens quedarem a casa, si creates a hypothesis and the sentence requires a main clause. In Si plou moltíssim!, emphatic intonation presents the rain as an evident fact. Formal exposition generally chooses a plain assertion or another exclamative pattern instead.

Information structure and clause roles

An exclamative phrase is often fronted because it is the evaluative focus. That does not make it the subject. In Quin soroll que fan aquestes màquines!, aquestes màquines is the subject and controls plural fan; quin soroll is the focused direct object.

The structure is [Exclamative focus quin soroll] [Link que] [Verb fan] [Subject aquestes màquines]. English word order alone can hide these relations because its “what a noise these machines make” uses the same initial phrase but does not mark verbal number as visibly.

A known topic may be detached at the left or right:

Aquesta terrassa sets the topic; locative hi belongs inside the comment and resumes the setting. Omitting hi would damage the Catalan construction even though English needs no matching word.

A natural dialogue

The reactions progress from an evaluated noun (quina llum) to manner (que bé) and then an elliptical noun phrase (quines ganes). Locative hi connects both relevant clauses to the room.

An attachment ambiguity

Without context, jove most naturally modifies directora, but the intended contrast may be between the young director and another director. If the speaker means “the director speaks in a youthful way,” use an adverbial paraphrase: Que bé que parla la directora, amb un estil tan jove! Punctuation and position distinguish noun modification from a comment on manner; “flexible order” does not make attachment cost-free.

Short correction task

Correct Què bonic que és! and Quant persones han vingut!.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• Quin evaluates a noun and agrees with it; it is not followed by an article.
• Quant agrees before nouns but is invariable when it modifies a verb.
• Com and unaccented que foreground degree or manner; accented què asks “what?”.
• Emphatic si is a conversational assertion, not an incomplete conditional.
• Fronted exclamative material is focus, not automatically the subject; agreement and clitics expose the actual clause relations.