IELTS| Interjection: Parts of speech, how to express your emotions and examples

Interjection

Hello there! Welcome to yet another day of our wonderful class. It’s good to know that you all are here… I have had a wonderful session with you guys on other parts of speech which you can find here, today brings us to the end of it all and this one is… interjection. Just as you have all understood the others, I trust you will also be satisfied with this last one.

But before we start, we’ll all like to know what interjection is, why it’s necessary for us to be bothered about learning it… so let’s go there

What is Interjection?

An interjection is a part of speech that is used to express a sudden or deep burst of emotion. It’s a word mostly found at the beginning of a sentence, conversation and it’s usually followed by an exclamation mark (!)

Examples of interjections are:

Wow!

Aww!

Huh!

Oops!

Ouch!

Yuck!

Hi!

Phew!

These interjections usually have no grammatical value

Let’s look at some examples of them in a sentence

Wow! I got it
Aww! So sorry for your loss
Huh! I didn’t hear you
Oops! That was a mistake from me
Ouch! That hurts really bad
Yuck! Your shoe smells
Hi! How’s work going?
Phew! It’s finally over

TYPES OF INTERJECTIONS

Interjection of greeting

This expresses the emotion of being happy seeing someone

Examples:

Hi!

Hey!

Hello!

Interjection of pain

This expresses emotion of grief

Examples:

Ah!

Oh!

Ouch!

Interjection of embarrassment

This expresses an emotion of discomfort

Examples:

Ahem! Can I make a suggestion?

Interjection of surprise

This expresses emotions of shock

Examples:

Wow! This is beautiful

What! I can’t believe she made it

Interjection of doubt

This expresses an emotion of uncertainty

Examples:

Abuja is… er… the Federal Capital Territory

Interjection of joy

This expresses an emotion of happiness

Examples:

Hurray! I made it

Wow! Am happy for you

Interjection of praise

This expresses an emotion of approval

Great! I love that

Well done! This is good

Interjection of attention

This expresses an emotion of attention

Example:

Shh! Stop make noise

Look! The teacher is coming

Interjection of pity

This expresses emotion sympathy

Examples:

Oh dear! I forgot

Interjection of irritation

Examples:

Don’t blame the little girl, it’s not her fault. Hmph!

Am trying to calm you down, huh!. What’s there to be calm about?

I was greeting you, ehen! And so?

Interjection of relief

Examples:

Whew! It’s over at last

Okay! Which other interjections do you know?

There are other more examples and types of interjections. You can find out more on your own as part of the class practice and answer in the comment box below.

Now, let’s get to practice how these interjections can be used in our everyday conversations

Hurray! I won the bet
What! I can’t believe you just did that
Wow! This house is beautiful
Phew! I don’t want the teacher to come today
Oops! I made a mistake in the results
Shhh! Can I have some peace
Huh! Please I didn’t hear you well
Close that pot. Mtcheww!
So sorry! I heard about your loss
Er! Let me check the answer

So with these, I trust we can do a little exercise

Identify the interjections in the above sentences

Hurray! I won the bet
What! I can’t believe you just did that
Wow! This house is beautiful
Phew! I don’t want the teacher to come today
Oops! I made a mistake in the results
Shhh! Can I have some peace
Huh! Please I didn’t hear you well
Close that pot. Mtcheww!
So sorry! I heard about your loss
Er! Let me check the answer

Name the types of interjections identified above

Hurray! I won the bet

Interjection of joy

What! I can’t believe you just did that

Interjection of surprise

Wow! This house is beautiful

Interjection of surprise

Phew! I don’t want the teacher to come today

Interjection of disapproval

Oops! I made a mistake in the results

Interjection of pity

Shhh! Can I have some peace

Interjection of irritation

Huh! Please I didn’t hear you well

Interjection of attention

Close that pot. Mtcheww!

Interjection of irritation

So sorry! I heard about your loss

Interjection of pity

Er! Let me check the answer

Interjection of doubt

Okay! Practice this

Make a sentence with these types of interjections

Interjection of praise
Interjection of surprise
Interjection of pity
Interjection of irritation
Interjection of doubt
Interjection of relief
Interjection of pain
Interjection of embarrassment
Interjection of greeting
Interjection of excitement

Answer

Hurray! I have passed my exams
Is she your daughter, Wow! She’s beautiful
Chai! I forgot to see you before going
Please go out from there. Mtcheeww!
Er…American is a country
Alas! I have solved the problem
Ouch! I have hurt my leg
I don’t know. Er..let me find out please
Hello! May I see your boss please?
Wow! We’re travelling for the holiday

Interjection should be connected to the rest of the sentence, it shouldn’t be used anyhow

Examples of interjections used that do not connect with the rest of the sentence

Wow! I have hurt myself
Chai! America is a country
Hello! Let me check
Hey! Go out from there
Ouch I have solved the problem
Is she your daughter, alas! She’s beautiful
I don’t know, ouch! Let me check
Hurray! Let me see please
So sorry, I have passed my exams
Mtcheww! I have food to eat

Looking at the above statements, you will find out well that the interjections were wrongly used. Let’s see what makes them wrong

Hurting yourself it’s not a good thing so it shouldn’t go with an exclamation Wow!
America is a country… that’s just a statement that needs approval so it should go with an exclamation Chai
Hello! It’s a greeting and has nothing to do with you checking something
Go out from there is an expression of irritation and shouldn’t go with the exclamation Hey!
Solving a problem is an expression of relief and shouldn’t be expressed with the exclamation ouch!
“Is she your daughter” That should be an expression of praise and not relief ‘alas!’
I don’t know, let me check” is an expression of embarrassment of not knowing something” so it shouldn’t go with an exclamation ouch!
Let me see please is an expression of irritation and so should go with an exclamation Hurray!
Passing ones exams should bring an expression of excitement and not pity
“I have food to eat” is an expression of excitement and shouldn’t go with the exclamation mtcheww!

Now let’s see how we can fix them