Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[fw]

When you see a very big cake in front of you on the table, which, #1 or #2, below, would you be likely to say?
1. What a big cake this is!
2. How big this cake is!

A friend insists that #2 is not natural. I feel #1 and #2 are both grammatical and natural English. Grammar books at hand give these two types of exclamatory sentence: �what a �noun�� pattern and �how �adjective�� pattern.

I�d appreciate it if you would give any comment.

[MauraS]

I would agree with your friend that #2 does not sound natural. It may be an older expression that is not used very often anymore, even though, as you say, it is grammatically correct.

I also think that #1 is not used so often either. This type of sentence makes me think of the chidren's fairy tale, Little Red Riding Hood. Do you know this story? She says things like, "What big ears you have!"

This story is quite old and the expression from it is quite old too. Here is some info on it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Red_Riding_Hood

It is probably the most natural to say, "That's a big cake!" or even simply, "What a big cake!"

Hope this helps!

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