1. What is an Interjection?

An Interjection is a word which expresses a sudden expression of emotion (joy, sorrow, hate, etc.) to make a sentence more vibrant. It, basically, is not a part of a sentence as it does not directly enter into the formation of the sentence. e.g.,

  • Ah! finally I got home at midnight.
  • Hurrah! We won the match.
interjections

Let’s take a lo at a few interjections—

ah! aah! alas! boo! bravo! cheers! cheerio! congratulations! drat! eek! ew! fie! gosh! hallo! hark! hello! hear! hip, hip, hooray! ho! hurrah! lo! oh! wow! ouch! pish! tut! ugh! yay! what!
  • Ah! what a beautiful spectacle it is! (pleasure)
  • Boo! How you jumped from that height upside-down man! (surprise)
  • Oh drat! I had to mail the two envelopes together. (mild expression of anger)

2. Phrasal Interjection

There are a few phrases that are used as interjections to emphasize emotion. e.g.,

good heavens! good grief! good gracious! good for you! good on you! good lord! oh boy! oh my Lord! oh dear! oh drat! dear me! thank god! thank heavens!
  • Good heavens! how an intellectual move it was!
  • Oh dear! you must have used a helmet.
  • Thank god! I managed to board the last train last night.

3. Elliptical sentence

Some phrases look like interjections, they take exclamation marks or don’t according to the sentence but they are not interjections, such phrases are termed Elliptical Sentences. e.g.,

Well done! What a mess! etc.