Welcome to week 11 of our Grammar Guide.  This week is all about interjections.  Interjections typically show up in dialog.

Interjections are used to express emotion such as surprise, displeasure and other strong emotions.   Interjections are typically abrupt as an aside or interruption and most often appear in dialog.

Hey!

Wow!

Yuck!

A strong interjection will typically have an exclamation point ! as punctuation.  However, you will see them with a period if the reaction is more subdued.  Whoa.

Some suggestions on Interjections:

• Use them sparingly.  Like the exclamation point, you should limit your use of interjections as they can quickly tire out the reader and lose their impact when overused.
• Sometimes, you can use !@#$@ to stand in for more... salty... interjections.
• Any word type can work as an Interjection
  • Verb: Run!
  • Noun: Dog!
  • Adjective: Great!
• Some words are only interjections.  Some examples:
  • Oops!
  • Ouch!
  • Oh!
  • Shh!
  • Ahh!

Listen! Don't over do the interjections.

• References:
  • Kern, Jara. (2020). The Infographic Guide to Grammar. Adams Media
  • Venolia, Jan. (2001). Write Right! (4th ed.). Ten Speed Press