Interjections

What is an Interjection?

Wow!

Oh my gosh!

Umm…

In English we can use Interjections to express emotion, usually in a spontaneous manner. Due to this spontaneity, they are usually used in spoken conversation or in fictional works of art such as novels, comics etc (anything where dialogue is likely to take place). You aren’t likely to see them in academic writing (e.g. news articles or essays).

An interjection can be a single word: –

Oh!

It can also take the form of a multi-word expression: –

Excuse me!

As well as being used as standalone expressions, we can also use them in longer sentences: –

Wow, is this for me?





Shared Parts of Speech

Interjections can often be classed as a part of speech. This is the case with the words mentioned so far. However, there are some cases where there is overlap with other parts of speech. Take this sentence as an example: –

“I will visit the pyramids tomorrow.” “Great!”

In this short dialogue, the word “Great” is being used as an interjection. It is being used to show happiness as a response to good news. Notice as well how it can stand alone perfectly fine without needing any other supporting words to make a longer phrase.

“It would be a great honour to meet you.”

In this sentence, the word “great” is being used in a different way. It is now a different part of speech (an adjective) and is used to describe “honour”.





Interjection Groups

Approval / Disapproval

yes

yeah

no

nope

no way

ok

fine

Greeting

bye

goodbye

hello

hey

hi

yo

Happiness

woohoo

yahoo

yay

yippee

Pain

ouch

ow

ah

Surprise

oh

wow

argh

whoa

yikes





Interjections Quiz