Exclamations | Syntax | Khan Academy

Paige, what I think we left something out of the last video. Oh no, I left exclamations after the last video! That's not good. Okay, we can fix this. Okay, we just need to make a video.

Yes! Oh hello, grammarians! Hello Paige! Hi David! So I want to talk today about the exclamation. Whoa! An exclamation is a type of sentence.

So previously, we covered three other kinds of sentence. We covered declarative sentences, which are just sort of statements, right? We covered interrogative sentences, which are questions, and we covered imperative sentences, which are orders. But I forgot to include the exclamation. I didn't actually forget, I just wanted to save space.

No? Okay, um, but Paige, what is an exclamation?

So it's a sentence, or maybe a word, that's like an expression of really strong emotion. That's why we were screaming a lot and stuff. Those were all exclamations. So it doesn't even necessarily have to be a sentence.

You said so it could just be something like "ow," right? Like an interjection like that?

Yeah, that's a great example! If you hurt yourself, you might scream "ow." That's an exclamation.

Can an exclamation also be an imperative? Like if I said "look out"?

Yeah, I think so, right? That's an order, yeah. And it's being exclaimed. It's being yelled. So I think that's an exclamation too.

So there's some overlap with like imperative and exclamation sometimes. I would also say that there's probably an overlap with declarative sentences too.

That's true. That's very true. You could be like, "Ah! That ogre is about to attack the village!" Right? That is just a statement, but you're clearly pretty scared about it. So there's an exclamation point.

But I could also walk that statement back also as an exclamation and say, "I was wrong about the ogre. He's nice!"

Oh! He's just coming to say hi!

He's just coming to say hi, right? Give you a big ol’ thumbs up.

Um, so we're expressing something. We're expressing strong emotion. We could just be very excited about something, right? Or you can use exclamation points when you're trying to convey that someone is speaking at high volume, okay?

Right! So I could be yelling across, you know, the field to you, my pal, to be like, "Don't worry about the ogre! He's just bringing snacks!"

Okay, so there's not even necessarily strong emotion there. You just want me to hear you because I'm far away.

So Paige, I reckon that's what an exclamation is.

I think so! Expression of strong emotion or volume. So they can be—they're not always sentences, so they can be interjections like "ow," or they can be full sentences like "look out!" or "that ogre is about to attack the village!"

Yeah! They can be a lot of things. Maybe a lot of things! Just like you can learn anything.

David, out.

Paige, out!