Choose the correct Exclamatory sentence for the following sentence:
He was shocked to see me.
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → How shocked was he to see me!
Assertive to exclamatory with "How":
| Change | Assertive | Exclamatory | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Opening words | was shocked | How shocked | When the feeling lies in an adjective (“shocked”), the exclamation begins with How + adjective. |
| Word order | He was | was he | The usual order is How + adjective + subject + verb (“How shocked he was”). The inverted order How + adjective + verb + subject (“How shocked was he”) is also used, mostly in a literary style. |
| End mark | (.) | (!) | The rest of the sentence stays as it is: “to see me”, and the sentence ends with an exclamation mark. |
| Full sentence | He was shocked to see me. | How shocked was he to see me! |
Example: She was pleased with the gift. → How pleased she was with the gift!
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: How shock he was to see me! — Incorrect. "shock" is a noun or a base verb. The sentence needs the adjective shocked.
Option 3: How shocked was he with seeing me! — Incorrect. "with seeing" changes the original "to see". Shocked is followed by to + verb for the cause of the reaction.
Option 4: How shocked was he seeing me! — Incorrect. "seeing" drops the infinitive "to see" of the original, and the sentence no longer says what caused the shock.