Exclamative Sentences (Який! Як! Що за!)

Beyond the bare cries of the interjections page, Ukrainian has a small set of sentence patterns for exclaiming — for marvelling at a thing's quality ('what a beautiful day!'), at a degree ('how fast!'), or at a quantity ('what a lot of people!'). They are easy and high-value: a few templates let you sound genuinely expressive. The one thing to get right is which word opens the exclamation — and that depends on whether you are exclaiming about a noun (use який, which agrees) or about an adjective/adverb (use як, which never changes).

Який + noun — 'what (a)…!'

To exclaim about a noun — its beauty, awfulness, size, surprise — open with який, agreeing with that noun in gender and number:

Most often the noun carries an adjective too, and який still agrees with the noun: Яка́ га́рна пого́да! ('what nice weather!'). Note that Ukrainian needs no article — який already does the work of English 'what a'.

Як + adjective or adverb — 'how…!'

To exclaim about a degree — modifying an adjective or an adverb rather than a noun — open with the invariant Як ('how'). It never changes form:

A short, idiomatic Як га́рно! ('how lovely!') or Як ці́каво! ('how interesting!') on its own is one of the commonest exclamations in spoken Ukrainian.

Що за + nominative — colloquial 'what a…!'

A more colloquial way to say 'what a…!' is Що за + a noun in the nominative (not genitive, despite за usually taking the accusative — here it is a fixed exclamative idiom). It often carries a tinge of exasperation or vividness.

Скі́льки + genitive — 'what a lot of…! / how many…!'

To exclaim about quantity, open with Скі́льки ('how much / how many') followed by the genitive (singular for mass nouns, plural for countables — the normal government of скі́льки):

Таки́й + adjective — 'so…!'

For an intensified 'so…!', use таки́й (agreeing, like який) before an adjective, or the invariant так before an adverb — the same agreeing-vs-invariant split as який/як:

Wishes and curses as exclamations

A related expressive type uses the particle Хай / Неха́й ('let / may') or Бода́й for wishes and (mild) curses thrown out as exclamations — Хай щасти́ть! ('good luck!', literally 'may it bring luck'), Бода́й тобі́! (a light-hearted 'darn you!'). They behave like exclamations in tone and punctuation.

Intonation, the exclamation mark, and the question trap

Notice that який and як are also the interrogatives 'which/what' and 'how'. In writing, the exclamation mark distinguishes an exclamation from a question; in speech, it is the intonation — a falling, emphatic contour for the exclamation versus the rising contour of a question. Compare:

The same word, the same opening — only the punctuation and melody tell the listener whether you are exclaiming or asking. (For який/як as question words, see interrogative pronouns; for the degree adverbs they pair with, see degree and manner adverbs.)

Source-language comparison

English makes essentially the same split — 'what a beautiful day!' (with a noun) vs 'how beautiful!' (with an adjective) — so the logic is familiar. Two adjustments: first, Ukrainian який agrees in gender and number (Яки́й / Яка́ / Яке́ / Які́), where English 'what' is invariant; second, Ukrainian uses no article (Яки́й день!, not 'what a day' with a separate word — який carries the whole meaning). The pitfall is choosing який where як is needed, or the reverse: remember which one points at a noun (який, agreeing) and which at an adjective/adverb (як, invariant). The colloquial Що за + nominative has a loose English parallel in 'what a…!', and Скі́льки + genitive matches 'what a lot of…!' / 'how many…!'.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• Який + noun = 'what (a)…!', agreeing in gender/number: Яки́й день! / Яка́ ніч! / Яке́ ди́во! / Які́ лю́ди! — no article needed.
• Як + adjective/adverb = 'how…!', invariant: Як шви́дко лети́ть час!, Як га́рно!, Як до́бре!
• Що за + nominative is a colloquial 'what a…!' (Що за пита́ння!); Скі́льки + genitive is 'what a lot of…! / how many…!' (Скі́льки люде́й!).
• Таки́й + adjective / так + adverb = 'so…!' — the same agreeing-vs-invariant split as який/як.
• який/як are also the interrogatives; only the exclamation mark and the intonation (falling/emphatic vs rising) distinguish an exclamation from a question.