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Interjections can add emphasis to a strong emotion and make a sentence stand out.
The best type of interjection (and punctuation) to use with it depends on the context of the sentence.
Learn best practices for writing with interjections, including the types of interjections, and how to punctuate interjections.
Then, review your content with the Originality.ai Grammar Checker to avoid common grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors.
Interjections are words or phrases that are short exclamations. Grammatically, they don’t impact the words or sentences around them, as they typically have their own punctuation or stand alone.
In writing, interjections express sudden emotions, reactions, or commands.
They might be at the start or end of an expressed thought or interject right in the middle.
The interjection can be removed from any of these examples without altering the meaning of the remaining sentences.
They’re just extra pops of emotion that add liveliness, excitement, or urgency to the words around them.
Some interjections are just that quick pop of excitement, like “Wow!” Others express agreement to an idea or reaction to something. There are names for these different types of interactions.
The reasoning behind whether an interjection is described as primary or secondary is based on the particular word used.
Let’s take a closer look.
The meaning of a primary interjection is a word or a sound with the main purpose of interjecting. They don’t have other uses in grammar.
How to use primary interjections in a sentence (examples):
Words that can interject and also have other grammatical uses are secondary interjections.
They function as different parts of speech (noun, verb, adjective) in addition to their use as an interjection.
How to use secondary interjections in a sentence (examples):
There are also a few types of interjections that are named based on what they do.
Emotive interjects do what their name implies: they interject an emotion or emotional reaction
A cognitive interjection refers to what a person is thinking or their thoughts.
The word “volitive” means relating to the will (such as the will to do something). In grammar, this relates to expressing a wish, command, or demand.
Volitive interjections are used to express a request or demand.
In writing, interjections often appear before or after sentences, but they can also be put in the middle of a sentence. Punctuation is important with interjections and depends on where they are placed.
Because an interjection often expresses a sudden emotion or reaction, it commonly appears with an exclamation point (!). This is when the interjection appears on its own and is related to the sentence before or after.
When an interjection is part of a sentence, use a comma to separate it from the other words.
If the interjection is in the middle of a sentence, set it off with a comma on either side:
An em dash (—) can also separate an interjection from the other words in a sentence. The word after the em dash is not capitalized, and any exclamation mark used goes at the end of the sentence.
If using em dashes with an interjection in the middle of a sentence, the exclamation point can be used inside the em dashes:
Interjections add emphasis to writing with their quick, poppy burst of emotion.
When used in moderation, they can be very effective. As with any type of emphasis, when used too often, it can be distracting (think ALL CAPS in email messages.)
So, use interjections when they add just the right pop of expression, but be mindful of how often you are using them to ensure you are striking the right balance.
Not sure if you are using interjections properly or adding the correct punctuation? Review your writing with the Originality.ai Grammar Checker to find out!
Then, get more insight in our grammar guides:
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