Learning English

Said with feeling

Interjections are an emotional response to a situation. As we've seen in the first activities they can express pain, surprise, anger, boredom, irritation and a whole range of other emotions.

When we say them, there is normally some body language that goes with them for example a scrunched up face with yuck! or a shrug of the shoulders with meh!

Tone of voice is also very important. Compare these two sentences.

Hey! Look where you're going? You nearly crashed into me. (Anger and surprise)

Hey! Look at that puppy. So cute. (Getting someone's attention)

The same word would need to be said in different ways in order to match the emotion.

As interjections are often an instinctive response to something. We don't really have time to think about them, they just come out.

Barreeffama kana dubbisii shakala kana xumuri

Not just your pain

You probably remember that ouch! is used for when we hurt ourselves. We can also use it when seeing or hearing about someone else's pain. That pain could be real or metaphorical.

"I fell off my bike and broke my arm."
"Ouch!"

"How much was the fine?"
"£1000"
"Ouch!"

"She told me I was the worst boyfriend she'd ever had."
"Ouch! That's gotta hurt." 

Some more interjections

Ooh! = surprise, excitement or pleasure
Ooh! Look, a rainbow.
Ooh! My favourite film is on TV tonight. Can we watch it? 

Mmm! = pleasure
Mmm! This cake is yummy, did you make it?
Mmm! This massage is great

Oi! = Anger and surprise
Oi! You just knocked over my drink.
Oi! Look where you're going!

Aha! = sudden understanding with a feeling of success
Aha! I remember where I put my keys.
Aha! I knew this was the right way.

Whoa! = response to something unexpected or encouragement to slow down
Whoa! Did you see that? The power went off and came back on again, that can't be good.
Whoa! Slow down, tell me what happened.

To do

In this session we've shown you a lot of interjections. Do you think you can choose the right one? Try the quiz to find out.

End of Session 1

Phew! That's the end of this section about interjections. We hope you felt it was more hooray than meh!