Interjections

Ahem, have you ever heard about parts of speech? Most probably, yes! 

Parts of speech are a category of words that have the same grammatical meaning. There are eight parts of speech used in English:

1. Nouns
2. Pronouns
3. Verbs 
4. Adjectives
5. Adverbs  
6. Prepositions
7. Conjunctions 
8. Interjections

We use such words in our daily conversations without knowing to which category they belong.

• Yahoo! Oh my God! Alas! Hurray!

You must have heard of such words in your life or at least used them once. If you have used it, then it means you have used interjections in your conversation.

In this lesson, you are going to learn what are injections, their usage, and signs. 

Definition:

Interjections are a part of speech. An interjection is a Latin word, inter mean between, and jacĕre means to throw, so the interjections are words that you throw between sentences.

Interjections are used to convey strong emotions and feelings, such as sadness, joy, surprise, excitement, etc. They bring life in conversations. They make you wonder about the speaker's emotions, what they are trying to say.

Interjections do not relate grammatically to any part of the sentence. They do not have a relation to any word or phrase used in the sentence.

Example: 

• Alas! He’s dead.
• Hurray! We won the match.
• Yahoo, I am going to London next week.

Punctuations following interjection 

To recognize an interjection, you have to make use of punctuation. You have a choice to use punctuations after interjections if the interjection isn’t a question. Mostly interjections are not questions. If it is, then you have to use a question mark. Else you can use a comma, full stop (period), or an exclamatory sign.

Commas and full stops are used for mild interjections. It depends on you; whether you use a comma or period. You must choose what looks good in your sentence.

Example: 

• Well! I guess I should leave before he gets angrier. (wrong)
• Well, I guess I should leave before he gets angrier. (right)

Exclamation marks are used for some stronger emotions.

Example:

• Wow, that’s a fantastic artist.  (wrong)
• Wow! That’s a fantastic artist. (right)

Most of the time, if exclamatory sign follows an interjection, then such interjections are followed by sentences with exclamatory marks except questions. They are always followed by a question mark, no matter what.

Example: 

• Yahoo! I got the concert tickets. (wrong)
• Yahoo! I got the concert tickets! (right)

Use of Interjection 

You can use interjection at the start of a sentence, in the middle of the sentence, or at the end of the sentence. There is not any limitation for the usage of interactions. But the sign conventions differ with each usage as mentioned above. Sometimes interjections stand alone as sentences.

In the beginning. 

Interjections are most commonly found at the beginning of the sentence. But it does not have any relations with phrases or words used in a sentence.

Example:

• Yikes! I didn’t know today is his birthday!
• Hurray! I have been chosen for a national singing competition from my university.
• Well, I am leaving now.
• Eww, I’m not too fond of this dress.
• Hmm, I think you should take some rest.

Middle or end of the sentence.

The interjections always don’t need to be at the beginning of a sentence. Interjections can be placed at the end or middle of the sentence. There isn’t any hard and fast rule for the interjections to appear at the beginning or end.

Example:

• I wasn’t successful, but hey, at least I appeared for the test.

In the above example, the interjection is in the middle of the sentence. The interjection “hey,” is a mild one, it does not need any exclamatory sign.

Example:

• So, you think of yourself as a philosopher, huh?

In this example, the interjection “ huh “ is found at the end of the sentence. The interjection usage has converted the sentence into a question, which is why a question mark follows it. The exclamatory sign was not required here.

 As a Standalone Sentence

An interjection can also act as a standalone sentence.

Example:

• Oops! I am sorry.

The interjection “oops” is a standalone sentence. It does not have a subject or a verb, but it is grammatically correct. It gives a complete sense.

Types of interjections

There are many types of interjections; here, many means hundreds or even thousands of interjections in English. They are used to express strong emotions such as hate, anger, happiness, sadness, disgust, boredom, etc. Some interjections express mild emotion such as well, excuse me, hmm, umm, etc.

Some of the types of interjections are given below.

You can see that some of the interjections do not take exclamatory marks; such interjections are called mild interjections. They are often separated by comma or period from the rest of the sentence.

Tip:

Try to avoid using interjections in formal or academic writings. Interjections can be used in informal essays and speech. But when you use interjections informal writing, it will look as if you are not serious about the topic.

Conclusion:

In this lesson, we have learned interjections are words to express strong emotions. Always remember that all exclamations cannot be interjections, but all interjections are exclamations.