What a Day!

We have had a run of very good summer weather for the last couple of months here in Auckland, warm and sunny with clear blue skies, and not too hot. So when the sun starts to go down on another good day, I find myself grateful, and say to myself, “What a day!”. I’m happy that I made it through another day, and I go to bed hopeful that tomorrow will also be a good day.

If you look at the title of today’s post, you’ll see the first word, but it’s not a question word. And if you move your eye to the end of the title, you won’t see a question mark (?), but an exclamation mark (!). In English, when we start a sentence with What a .  .  ., that means that we have strong feelings about something or someone, for example “What a nice thing to say!”

If I am feeling grateful, and I say to you “What a day!”, there’ll be a smile on my face because I’m expressing a happy or thankful emotion.

But sometimes, someone might say to you “What a day!”, and they won’t be wearing a smiley face; they’ll be wearing a frown. The way they say it will tell you that they’re unhappy and that they’ve had a bad day. The way you say something can change the meaning.

So don’t just pay attention to the words, look at the speaker’s face, listen to the music in their voice, and understand their body language.