THE INTERJECTION

Standalone Emotions

Egads! You don’t remember what an interjection is? It’s a word or phrase that expresses surprise or some other emotion or is used as filler. An interjection often stands alone (gosh, darn). If an interjection is part of a sentence, it doesn’t have a relation to other words in the sentence; if it’s taken out of the sentence, the meaning is unchanged. Take a look at these sentences:

Hey, dude.

Like, what’s going on?

Ouch! Did you step on my toe?

Hey, like, and ouch are interjections.

When you’re expressing a strong emotion or surprise (as in Stop! or Darn it all!), use an exclamation point. If you’re using milder emotion or merely using a filler (as in like or well), use a comma.

Grammar Facts


Interjections that are considered too off-color for readers are often denoted by using various symbols, in no particular order. For example, “I’ve been stood up by that $@*# guy for the last time!” Lolita cried.


A note of caution about interjections: use them in moderation, if at all. In dialogue, interjections are used far more often than in more formal writing, where they’re hardly ever used.

Here are common interjections in the English language:

• ah

• aha

• ahem

• ahoy

• alack

• alas

• all hail

• alleluia

• aloha

• amen

• attaboy

• aw

• ay

• bah

• behold

• bejesus

• bingo

• bleep

• boo

• bravo

• bye

• cheerio

• cheers

• ciao

• crikey

• cripes

• dear

• doh

• duh

• eh

• encore

• eureka

• fie

• gee

• gee whiz

• gesundheit

• goodness

• gosh

• great

• hah

• ha-ha

• hail

• hallelujah

• heigh-ho

• hello

• hem

• hey

• hi

• hip

• hmm

• ho

• ho hum

• hot dog

• howdy

• huh

• humph

• hurray

• hush

• indeed

• jeepers creepers

• jeez

• lo and behold

• man

• my word

• now

• ooh

• oops

• ouch

• phew

• phooey

• pshaw

• rats

• righto

• scat

• shoo

• shoot

• so

• so long

• there

• touché

• tush

• tut

• tut-tut

• ugh

• uh-huh

• uh-oh

• uh-uh

• viva

• voilà

• wahoo

• well

• what

• whoa

• whoopee

• whoops

• whoosh

• wow

• yay

• yes

• yikes

• yippee

• yo

• yoicks

• yoo-hoo

• yuk

• yummy

• zap