Exclamations with wie and was für

When something strikes you — a beautiful sunset, a terrible mess, a surprising gift — German gives you two main exclamation patterns, and which one you pick depends on a single grammatical fact: are you reacting to a quality (an adjective or adverb) or to a thing (a noun)? For a quality you use wie: Wie schön! ("How nice!"). For a thing you use was für (ein): Was für ein Tag! ("What a day!"). This page teaches both frames, the difference between the short version and the full-clause version, and the word-order rule that trips up almost every English speaker.

The core split: quality vs thing

English makes the same split, which makes this easy to learn:

• React to a quality → English "How …!" → German Wie …! (Wie schön! = How nice!)
• React to a thing → English "What a …!" → German Was für ein …! (Was für ein Tag! = What a day!)

The grammar follows the part of speech. wie attaches to an adjective or adverb; was für ein attaches to a noun. Get the part of speech right and the choice is automatic.

Exclamations with wie

Wie + adjective or adverb is the everyday "How …!" exclamation. In its shortest form it is just two words and an exclamation mark.

You can also build a full clause after wie by adding the subject and verb. Here comes the key word-order rule: when a full clause follows the exclamatory wie, it behaves like a subordinate clause, so the verb goes to the very end.

Trace the order in Wie schön du heute aussiehst!: the verb aussiehst sits at the end, after the subject and all the rest — exactly as it would in a dass-clause. This is the single biggest difference from English, where "How lovely you look today!" keeps the verb in the middle.

Exclamations with was für (ein)

Was für ein + noun is the "What a …!" exclamation, used to react to a thing. The crucial detail is that ein is a real article here and must be declined for the noun's gender and case.

Two things to lock in:

1. The gender shows up in ein/eine: masculine and neuter take ein (Was für ein Tag, Was für ein Chaos), feminine takes eine (Was für eine Überraschung).
2. Plurals and true uncountables drop ein entirely: Was für schöne Blumen! (plural — no article), and you cannot say Was für ein Wasser meaning "what water" unless you mean a countable portion.

The last example is a full clause, and again the verb (mitgebracht hast) lands at the end.

Exclamatory was für vs question was für

The exact same words, was für (ein), also form a question meaning "what kind of …?". The difference is intonation and word order, not the words.

• Question (verb-second, rising/asking tone): Was für einen Wagen fährst du? = "What kind of car do you drive?" Here einen is accusative because Wagen is the direct object — proof again that ein declines for case, not just gender.
• Exclamation (often verb-final or verbless, falling/emphatic tone): Was für ein Wagen! = "What a car!"

So was für is a chameleon: with a finite verb in second position and a question mark it asks "what kind"; standing alone with an exclamation mark it exclaims "what a". Context and punctuation tell them apart.

A note on welch — the elevated alternative

There is a third, more literary way to say "What a …!" — using welch (ein): Welch ein Tag!, Welch eine Freude! This belongs to elevated, written, or theatrical register and sounds out of place in casual speech. For everyday "What a …!", stick with was für ein; reach for welch only when you want a deliberately formal or poetic tone. The dedicated page on so, solch, and welch covers this register ladder in full.

English contrast

The mapping is clean, which is the good news, but two traps hide inside it:

• English "How
  • adjective!" = German Wie
    • adjective: How nice! → Wie schön!
• English "What a
  • noun!" = German Was für ein
    • noun: What a day! → Was für ein Tag!

Trap one: English keeps the verb in the middle of a full exclamation ("How fast it goes!"), but German sends it to the end (Wie schnell es *geht!). Trap two: English "what a" never inflects ("what *a day", "what a surprise" — always "a"), but German ein must match gender and case (ein Tag, eine Überraschung, einen Wagen). The article that is invisible in English carries real grammar in German.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• React to a quality with wie
  • adjective/adverb (Wie schön!); react to a thing with was für ein
    • noun (Was für ein Tag!).
• In a full-clause exclamation the verb goes to the end: Wie schnell das geht!, Was für schöne Blumen du mitgebracht hast!
• ein in was für ein is a real article: it declines for gender (ein Tag / eine Überraschung) and case (einen Wagen), and disappears before plurals (Was für schöne Blumen!).
• The same words form a question ("what kind of …?") with a finite verb in second position and a question mark — tone and word order tell them apart.
• welch (ein) is the literary alternative to was für ein; keep it for formal or poetic register.