Exclamatory Sentences with Какой and Как

Beyond bare interjections, Russian builds full exclamatory sentences — "What a beautiful house!", "How nicely she sings!", "What a pity!" — and it does so with just two little words: какой and как. They are the same words you already know as the question words "which / what kind?" and "how?", but used to exclaim rather than to ask. The whole topic comes down to one decision that English does not force on you: какой or как? Get that split right and your exclamations are correct; get it wrong and you produce the single most common exclamation error learners make.

The core split: какой vs как

Here is the rule in one line:

• какой comes before a noun, or before an adjective + noun, and it agrees with that noun in gender, number, and case. It translates as "what a…! / what…!"
• как comes before an adverb, a verb, or a short-form adjective, and it never changes. It translates as "how…!"

So the choice is mechanical once you see what follows: a noun phrase pulls какой; everything else pulls как. The reason for the split is worth understanding, not just memorizing. Какой is an adjective by nature — it describes nouns, so it must agree with whatever noun it describes, exactly as any Russian adjective does. Как is an adverb by nature — it modifies verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs, and Russian adverbs never inflect. Once you see какой as "a special adjective" and как as "a special adverb", the agreement behavior follows automatically: adjectives agree, adverbs don't. These two words also live a double life as the question words "what kind?" (Како́й э́то фильм? "What kind of film is this?") and "how?" (Как ты спал? "How did you sleep?"); the exclamatory use is the same word, the same grammar, just with a falling, emphatic intonation instead of a rising, questioning one.

КАКОЙ + (adjective +) noun — "what a…!"

Because какой agrees with its noun, it takes four shapes — masculine како́й, feminine кака́я, neuter како́е, plural каки́е — and you pick the one that matches the noun's gender and number (and, in a fuller sentence, its case).

You can drop the adjective and exclaim about the noun alone — then какой carries the emotion by itself, often with a heavily expressive intonation. Кака́я ра́дость! ("What joy!"), Како́й кошма́р! ("What a nightmare!"), Кака́я красота́! ("What beauty!") are everyday fixed reactions.

КАК + adverb / verb / short adjective — "how…!"

Как never changes form. It fronts an adverb (Как краси́во! "How beautiful(ly)!"), a whole verb phrase (Как он поёт! "How he sings!"), or a short-form adjective (Как он умён! "How clever he is!").

Note the pairing of the same idea across the two patterns. "Beautiful" can be the adverb краси́во (→ Как краси́во!) or the adjective краси́вый in front of a noun (→ Како́й краси́вый…!). The same root, крас-, surfaces in both, and the only question is whether you are exclaiming about a thing (there's a noun, so какой + adjective) or about the quality on its own (no noun, so как + adverb). This is why, looking at a sunset, you can say either Како́й краси́вый зака́т! ("What a beautiful sunset!" — there's a noun, зака́т) or simply Как краси́во! ("How beautiful!" — no noun, just the quality). Both are correct; they differ only in whether a noun is present.

The short-form adjective deserves its own note, because it is the one place an English speaker reliably trips. A short adjective such as умён ("clever", from у́мный) or прекра́сна ("lovely", from прекра́сная) behaves like a predicate, and predicates pattern with как, never какой. So "How clever he is!" is Как он умён! and "How lovely she is!" is Как она́ прекра́сна! — even though English uses "how" before an adjective here, and even though the corresponding long adjective + noun would demand какой (Како́й у́мный ма́льчик! "What a clever boy!"). The cue is structural: a short adjective is a verb-like predicate, so it joins the как camp.

Как жаль! — and other fixed как-exclamations

A handful of high-frequency exclamations are simply memorized as units. The most important is Как жаль! ("What a pity! / What a shame!"), built on как + the predicative жаль. Notice the English translation says "what a pity" but Russian uses как, because жаль is an adverb-like predicative, not a noun.

The такой / так intensifiers

Parallel to какой / как is the такой / так pair, used to say "so…!" with extra emphasis. The split is identical:

• такой ("such (a)") agrees and goes before an adjective + noun or a long-form adjective: Он тако́й до́брый! ("He's so kind!"), Тако́й интере́сный фильм! ("Such an interesting film!").
• так ("so") is invariable and goes before an adverb or a verb: Так до́лго! ("So long!"), Я так уста́л! ("I'm so tired!").

So the master pattern is a clean two-by-two: какой/такой ride with nouns and long adjectives (and agree); как/так ride with adverbs, verbs, and short adjectives (and never change). Learn one pair and the other comes free. More on the так family of degree words is on the degree adverbs and intensifiers page, and the question-word source of какой is covered under чей, какой, который.

How this differs from English

English uses "what (a)" before a noun phrase and "how" before an adjective or adverb — "What a beautiful house!" vs "How beautiful!". Russian draws the very same line, so once you map какой ↔ what a and как ↔ how, the systems align surprisingly well. Two snags remain:

1. Agreement. English "what a" is frozen; Russian какой must match its noun (Кака́я пого́да!, Како́е у́тро!). You have to track gender.
2. Short adjectives go with как, not какой. "How clever he is!" is Как он умён! (short form умён
   • как), never какой. English "how clever!" already uses "how", so this one actually helps you — but only if you recognize умён as a short-form predicate rather than reaching for the noun pattern.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• какой (agreeing: како́й/кака́я/како́е/каки́е) + noun or adjective+noun = "what a…!" — Како́й краси́вый дом!
• как (invariable) + adverb, verb, or short adjective = "how…!" — Как краси́во!, Как ты вы́рос!, Как он умён!
• The intensifiers run on the same split: такой (agreeing) with nouns/long adjectives, так with adverbs/verbs/short adjectives.
• Как жаль! ("what a pity!") uses как because жаль is a predicative, not a noun — memorize it.
• The number-one error is putting какой where как is needed (or vice versa); decide by what follows — a noun phrase ⇒ какой, anything else ⇒ как.