"What terrible stories you are telling!"

Translation: Vilka hemska historier du berättar!

[francociappina]

Why is the V2 rule not respected here?

[Arnauti]

We usually point out that V2 does not concern questions and subclauses. But there is a further exception, exclamations like here.

These expressions start with one of the following pronouns or adverbs: så, vad, sådan, vilken. The only thing that can go before them in the sentence are prepositions and indefinite articles.

The shortest version would be like:
Vad hon sover! 'How she sleeps!'

After the pronoun or adverb, there may also follow an adverb that can be compared for degrees:
Vad fort du springer! 'How fast you run!'

There can also be an adjective or participle phrase at the beginning:
Så skickligt hon hanterar problemet! 'How skilfully she handles the problem!'

… or a nominal phrase:
Vilka fina byxor du har! 'Such nice pants you have!'
(this is the case in our sentence)

So, the general structure of this kind of sentence is to put the astonishing thing first, then the subject, then the verb.

Simplified description based on SAG 4 p. 761-2 'expressive main clauses'

[ALarke]

(Adding a comment so i can find this later)

[Una_cerveza]

(Also adding a comment so I can find this later)

[Jonathan606349]

Varför skriver man inte "vilka hemska historier berättar du"? Använder man inte V2?

[Arnauti]

This sentence has a special exclamatory structure, I just wrote about it in another comment on this page.

The word order Vilka hemska historier berättar du? would be the normal word order for a question, so it would be a perfectly correct word order, but it wouldn't mean the same as this sentence.

Questions also don't follow V2. In question, the word order is:

1. If there is a question word (like vilka here) it must go first
2. The verb must go before the subject

So the question in this case just happens to look as if it follows V2. A simple question would be Berättar du? with the verb before the subject.

[KittyKing3]

This reminds Me of The Tale of Little Red Riding Hood when the little girl says to the wolf in disguise as her grandmother. "What big ears you have!" if this sentence were written following a V2 rule it would truely mean something else. " what big ears have you" (or rather,as it would be in english, "what big ears do you have?') .....like, ummm...which big ears did you decide to try on today?

[Marianthi8]

Why the answer: ''Vad hemska historier du berättar!'' has corrected to ''Såna hemska....'' I have no seen anywhere else the type ''såna''. Can you explain it me please

[jarrettph]

Såna I believe is short for sådana which means such. So Such terrible stories you are telling!

[Marianthi8]

thanks a lot jarrettph!

[jarrettph]

Varsågod!

[Patrick889093]

When do you use vilka vilket vilken instead of vad for what . There seems to be no hard rule or at least Duolingo doesn't explain one.

[jarrettph]

When do you not need to say berätta för?

[Arnauti]

When the person you're telling something is not mentioned.

[jarrettph]

Makes sense, thanks!

[Ridunculous]

Are these rules and exceptions on the Duolingo site or is there some other site I can go to that have them listed?

[ethovoleu]

comment to check it later

[jacob738094]

Can I also write "vilka hemska historier som du berättar"? I feel like this should be one of the times where 'som' is allowed.

[jennifer856684]

whats wrong with vad