Choose the most appropriate Assertive sentence for the following sentence:
What a pity! You have lost.
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → It is a great pity that you have lost.
Exclamatory to assertive:
An exclamatory sentence expresses a strong feeling with an exclamation such as "What a pity!".
| Change | Exclamatory | Assertive | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Opening words | What a pity! | It is a pity | The exclamation becomes a plain statement: “It is a pity”. |
| Intensifier | – | great | The strength of the feeling is shown with a word such as great or very. |
| Joining word | – | that | The rest of the sentence is joined with “that”: “that you have lost”. |
| Full sentence | What a pity! You have lost. | It is a great pity that you have lost. |
Example: What a shame that he failed! → It is a great shame that he failed.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: You have lost pity. — Incorrect. It changes the meaning: it says the person no longer feels pity, not that his loss is a pity.
Option 2: A pity you have lost. — Incorrect. It has no main verb ("It is" is missing), so it is not a complete statement.
Option 4: You have lost that was lost. — Incorrect. The sentence makes no sense and drops the feeling of pity altogether.