Exclamative pronouns are used to, indeed, exclaim. To be more specific, to express an emotion like admiration, disgust, or surprise with a certain quality: "What horrible wheather!" or: "Such lovely children!"
Dutch | Application | English
zo'n | before singular nouns | such a
wat
hoe | before adjectives | how
wat een | before singular and plural nouns | what a
zulk(e) | before uncountable singular nouns and plural nouns | such
If you already went through the other pronoun pages, you may recognize several of the pronouns. _Wat_ can also function as a [relative](#/lesson/Pronouns.Rl01) or [interrogative](#/lesson/Pronouns.It01) pronoun and _zo'n_ and _zulke_ were discussed in the chapter about [demonstrative pronouns](#/lesson/Pronouns.De07).
Zo'n
We use _zo'n_ before singular nouns. For plural nouns, we have to use _zulke_. However, in colloquial Dutch, you will often hear _zo'n_ before plural nouns as well.
Zo'n schattige hond! | Such a cute dog!
Zo'n rotweer! | Such lousy wheather!
Wat and hoe
_Wat_ and _hoe_ are interchangeable but hoe is a bit more formal. We only place them before adjectives, not before nouns.
Wat leuk! | How nice!
Hoe leuk! | How nice!
Wat vervelend! | How annoying!
Hoe vervelend! | How annoying!
Wat een
Although we normally place the article _een_ before singular nouns, the expression _wat een_ can be used for plural nouns as well. The nice thing about _wat een_ is that we do not have to inflect it.
Wat een schattige hond! | What a cute dog!
Wat een rotweer! | What a lousy wheather!
Wat een mooie schilderijen! | What beautiful paintings!
Wat een slimme studenten! | What clever students!
Zulk and zulke
We use zulk and zulke before uncountable nouns and before plural nouns. If we use it before an uncountable het-noun, we say _zulk_, in all other cases _zulk e_.
[het bier]
Zulk lekker bier! | [the beer]
Such tasty beer!
[de wijn]
Zulke goede wijn! | [the wine]
Such good wine!
[de druiven]
Zulke mooie druiven! | [the grapes]
Such beautiful grapes!
The examples of wine and beer are considered uncountable because we are referring to the general categories 'beer' and 'wine'. Of course, we can also talk about specific beers and wines, in which case we can actually count them.