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Old Eladio Posted 20 years ago
Grammar

"What" in exclamations: What a..! vs What...!

Hi, everybody! I cannot understand WHY we say, for example:

What a good advice!

But on the other hand we say:

What good advice you have given me! (without "a") (Here, why we do not say?: What a good advice you have given me!)

And thank you in advance!

Eladio
  

Top answer

What a good advice! This refers to a/one specific piece of advice. What good advice you have given me!

— Marius Hancu

  • What a good advice!
  • This refers to a/one specific piece of advice.
  • What good advice you have given me!
  • This refers to general advice provided, nothing specific.
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13 Answers
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What a good advice! This refers to a/one specific piece of advice.

What good advice you have given me! This refers to general advice provided, nothing specific.
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Hello Eladio-- what a nice surprise! Hace mucho tiempo...(since I studied Spanish).

Actually, I don't think we say What a good advice!. We say What good advice! or What a good piece of advice! Advice is uncountable except in the very specialized case of a commercial document (e.g. a shipping advice).
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Thank you Marius, but I do not understand very well. Does it means that I can say:

What good adive! and What a good advice you have given me! ??

We say: What a lovely day!; What a pretty woman!; What a beautiful forum is this! and these sentences are all correct (I believe). Would you be more explicit, please!

Eladio
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See the reply from MM on advice being uncountable. He's right.
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After reading Marius's post, I checked again. It is still not generally countable, but there is another case where a plural form is used: "information or notice given -- usually used in plural."
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As you can see here, it's marked U (Uncountable):

noun [ U ]


This is one of the few dictionaries which indicate that.
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Wow!, Mister Micawber, yes I suppose it's nice to see me again in EF, but it's nicer that you pay attention to my fool questions, thank you!

Now, I think I've got this point! So, could we establish a "rule" for countable and uncountable things, something like this:

What a beautiful girl! (Girls are countable, really?)

What warm and nice water in this beach! (water is unc
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Look in the dictionary I've listed in the above, for checking on U(uncountable) or C(Countable) issues.
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Yes, that sounds like a good rule, Eladio: What a...! (for singular countables) and What...! (for uncountables and plural countables).

And thanks for pointing out that feature of the Cambridge online, Marius-- I hadn't noticed that feature.
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Dear MM: See what I remembered yesterday. We say: What a mess!

But "mess" is uncountable!!

In conclusion, What a...! or What...! for exclamations, is a mess in English, isn't it?

Eladio
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