Aha! An Interjection Definition!

There’s one part of speech that is radically different from a verb, noun, pronoun, adjective, and the rest. They don’t help you understand relationships between words, nor do they have much of a grammatical purpose. Curious to learn more about this interesting group of words? This article answers the questions, “what is an interjection and why are they so special?”

Quick tip: Is your next writing assignment due soon? Make sure you’re formatting your work correctly by learning the guidelines for MLA format and APA format.

What is an Interjection?

Looking for an interjection definition? An interjection is a word, phrase, or sentence that expresses emotion, meaning, or feeling. These emotion words proceed punctuation marks, which are most often but not always exclamation points. For example:

Rats! My research paper is late!

This emotion word doesn’t mean that there are rodents running around. Instead, it expresses frustration and disappointment at missing a due date.

Whoa, this city view is amazing!

In this example, you aren’t saying “whoa” to calm down your horse. Instead, it expresses surprise at how wonderful the view is.

There are many great resources available on interjections. Check out this recommended reading and find more tips here for help once you’re done with this article.

Common Interjection Use

As you can tell from the above examples, you can place an interjection at the beginning of a sentence. However, it’s not a set rule. In fact, you can place emotion words throughout a sentence at the beginning, middle, or end. Interjections can also come after any part of speech, such as a verb, adjective, or noun. Here’s an example of emotion words in the middle of a sentence:

I tried my birthday cake and yuck, it wasn’t any good.

That example explains disgust for how the cake tastes. And here’s another with the emotion word at the end of the sentence:

I dropped my phone again, ugh.

This example tells you that the speaker is frustrated that their phone fell.

Quick tip: Does your teacher use a formatting structure other than MLA or APA? Learn how to cite work using more styles in this helpful guide from BibMe.

Interjection Examples

Here are some great words that can help you express your emotions. They include: ahh, alas, alrighty, blah, dang, gee, nah, oops, phew, shucks, woops, and yikes. Of course, there are many more fun words to learn that express emotion! Which ones are your favorite?

Appropriate Times to Use Interjections

As you can tell, the previous examples are informal. Therefore, you should only use emotion words in speech or while writing informally. If you’re curious as to whether you’re using emotion words correctly in your writing, look at the BibMe Plus grammar and plagiarism check. It’ll help you correct common English grammar mistakes.

Looking for additional BibMe Plus pages on other parts of speech? Check out adverb, preposition, determiner, and conjunction!