Interjections

Oh wow! You landed on this page! You must be looking for interjections.

Among many other parts of speeches, interjection is also one of the commonly used English grammar term that we use in our everyday language. Though interjections are more commonly used in verbal speech but still they can be easily found in written texts as well.

Today I will discuss about interjections, what they really are and how they are used in English sentences.

Interjections

The word interjection originated from two Latin words inter and jacere which mean between and to throw respectively so interjections refers to words that you throw in or exist in between sentences.

By dictionary, an interjection is a small word that is used between other words of a sentence which states emotions and reactions of the sentence.

Example:

Yay! We won the match.

The word yay in the above sentence expresses the feeling of excitement that the subject is feeling by winning the match. Thus, yay is an interjection.

Examples of words that act as interjections include yay/wow/hurrah/oh/yikes/oops/yahoo/terrific etc.

Point of Exclamation

One thing to be very careful about while using interjections in your writings is that it is always followed by the exclamation mark or the point of exclamation.

Example:

Oops! I dropped the bag.

When writing in informal style, interjections may exist between sentences and without exclamation marks.

Example:

Gee, you don’t look pregnant at all.

The word gee is an interjection that shows mild surprise and is informally in a sentence.

Sometimes, nouns and adjectives are also used as interjections.

Example as adjective:

Great! You finished the job on time.

Here the word great is an interjection which expresses the feeling of greatness.

Example as noun:

Congratulations! You are a father now.

In the above example, congratulations, though a noun in itself, is used as an interjection to express emotion.