What is Interjection in English Grammar?
An Interjection is a word or group of words that are used to express strong feelings or sudden emotions. It is one of the Parts of Speech.
It expresses the emotions like fear, surprise, joy, excitement, enthusiasm, panic, pain, etc.
Few examples of Interjections are oh, alas, wow, whoa, hey, phew, really, indeed, ah, yes, no, hurray, etc.
So, Interjections mainly express feelings more than the meaning of the sentence because there will be no grammatical connection.
When an Interjection is used, a few punctuation marks are added according to the emotions. The Most used punctuation marks are “Exclamation Mark” and “Comma” which is represented as (!) and (,).
Also Read: What are the Parts of Speech? (8 Parts of Speech examples)
Examples of Interjection
Below are the list of Interjection examples.
- Oh, what a beautiful mansion!
- Wow, this city view is amazing!
- Hey, How are you?
- Phew! I cleared Mathematics with just passing marks.
- Woah, this movie scene is just amazing!
Types of Interjections
Interjections are usually of two types based on the number of words. Those are,
- Single-word Interjection
- Multi-word Interjection
Single-word Interjection
Interjections that contains only one word is known as “Single-word Interjection”. For example oh, wow, alas, yes, etc.
Example statements of Single-word Interjections:
- Hurrah, we won the match!
- Oh, you missed your appointment.
- Alas! He lost his wallet.
- What a pity!
- Wow, what an idea!
Multi-word Interjection
Interjections that contain more than one word is known as “Multi-word Interjection”. For example Oh, really?, Holy moly!, uh-oh, uh-huh, indeed, etc.
Example statements of Multi-word Interjections:
- Oh, really? I doubt that.
- Holy moly! This dress is very expensive!
- It is cold outside, indeed.
- Oh gosh! I forgot to bring the hall ticket. How can I write the exam now?
- Oh no, I can’t believe that it is raining here again!
Note: Some Interjections are made of multiple words, but they function as a single interjection.
How to use Punctuation Marks for the specific Interjections?
As we discussed earlier punctuation marks are used along with Interjections. Choosing the right (suitable) Punctuation marks depends on the factors of the emotions.
The different factors are mentioned below,
- If the Interjection is not a question, then you can use a comma (,), a period (.) or an exclamation mark (!).
- If the Interjection is a mild expression, then you can use either a comma or a period.
- Otherwise, if it has strong expressions, then it is recommended to use an exclamation mark.
- If the Interjection is in question format, then at the end of the sentence, question mark is used.
Example Statements:
- Oh god! I am so scared now! (Interjection without Question Format)
- Hey! How did you do that? (Interjection in Question Format)
Also, remember that often, an interjection followed by an exclamation mark will be followed by an exclamatory sentence.
Different Positions of Interjections in a Sentence
Often, Interjections are used at the beginning of the sentence. But we can also use them in remaining places in the sentence (i.e, middle or at the end of the sentence).
Let us consider a few examples for each position.
- Interjection at the beginning of the sentence
1) Wow, what a pleasant surprise!
2) Yay! I got selected for the job interview.
3) Ouch! That really hurts.
- Interjection at the middle of the sentence
1) I think she is great, well, because she works very hard all day.
2) I made a pizza, and, voila, look at this masterpiece!
3) John told me that he was going to, uh, Los Angeles or New York, I think.
- Interjection at the end of the sentence
1) So, you haven’t done the homework again, huh?
2) Now I am the Project Manager for this company. Nice!
3) I didn’t get the solution for this math problem, but you solved it easily. Cool!
Interjection as a Standalone
A sentence or group of words are said to be standalone when it gives complete meaning. But, here even Interjections alone can become standalone.
Let us understand the below example to understand this concept clearly.
Ex: Oh god! I am late today.
Here, the interjection “Oh god!” is a standalone sentence with an exclamation mark.
It is grammatically correct to say that it is a standalone sentence even though it doesn’t have any Subject and Verb. So, here interjection (emotion) is the entire point of the sentence.
When Interjections should be used?
It is not recommended to write (use) Interjections in formal and academic writings. But it is recommended to use it in dialogue writing (scripts) which is more effective.
It is also used mostly in fictional writings such as fictional comics, magazines, short stories, etc.
You can also use it for informal conversation such as conversation between two friends, family, in an informal letter, etc.
Interjection Examples List
Here is the list of commonly used interjections.
| Interjections | Interjections | Interjections |
| ah | eww | shh |
| ahem | eh | thanks |
| alas | goodness | uh-huh |
| aha | oh | uh-oh |
| anyhow | hello | ugh |
| absolutely | hey | well |
| bam | huh | woah |
| bingo | hurray | whoops |
| cheers | oops | wow |
| congratulations | ouch | yeah |
| dang | phew | yes |
| duh | rats | yikes |
| darn | hmm | ok |
Quiz Time!
Summary: (What is Interjection in English Grammar?)
- Interjection belongs to one of the Parts of Speech and it is used to express feelings, emotions, etc in a sentence.
- For example hey, oh, no, yes, wow, hurrah, etc.
- Interjections are of two types, Single-word Interjections and Multi-word Interjections.
- One-word Interjections are Single-word Interjections and Interjections with more than a word is called as Multi-word interjections.
- Mostly used punctuation marks are Exclamation Mark (!), Period (.), Comma (,) and Question mark (?).
- Interjections can be used anywhere in the sentence (at the beginning, middle or end).
- So, interjections are mostly used in informal conversations, dialogue writing, letters, etc.
If you are interested in learning more, then you can refer to Wikipedia from here.
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