Interjections for Kids

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What Are Interjections? (for Kids)

Interjections show emotions like joy, surprise, disgust, pain, and anger. For example:

• Joy. Hooray! We won!
• Surprise. What? That cannot be true!
• Disgust. Ew! There is an awful smell outside.
• Pain. Ow! That bee stung me.
• Anger. No! I have told your twice already.

Interjections are also used for greetings and farewells:

• Greeting. Welcome. Please help yourself to the cakes.
• Farewell. Bye. I will see you next Tuesday.

Your Go!

Select the interjection in the following sentences.

More Examples of Interjections

Interjections of Joy

• Yippee! The shop is open!
• I scored 10 out of 10 in the test. Yay!
• Yes. The cakes look perfect.

Interjections of Surprise

• Oh! I did not expect that answer.
• Jeepers! The drinks are really expensive.
• Eek! That mouse ran across the floor!

Interjections of Disgust

• Yuk! I cannot eat olives.
• Wipe your nose please. Not on your sleeve! Ew!
• Ugh. Go upstairs and wash your feet.

Interjections of Sorrow or Pain

• Argh! All the books keep falling over!
• Oh no! This rain will destroy the chalk paintings.
• Sorry, he's not house-trained yet. I'll take your cushion to the dry-cleaners.

Interjections of Anger

• Hey! Get off the grass!
• Hmph! That is not the attitude I expect.
• Oy! Do not look at me like that!

Interjections of Greeting and Farewell

• Hey! How are you?
(Notice that some interjections can be used for several emotions. It depends how they are said.)
• Goodbye, see you tomorrow.
• Cheerio. I'll see you next Saturday.

Sometimes, interjections of greeting are just to seek attention. For example:

• Ahem. What do you think you're doing with those crayons?
• Shhh. I'm trying to think.
• Psst. Come here. I want to tell you something.

Your Go Again!

Select the emotion conveyed by the interjection.

Click on the Two Interjections
(Interactive Game)

More about Interjections

An interjection is often following by an exclamation mark. An exclamation mark makes the interjection stronger. For a milder effect, you can use a comma or a period (full stop ). The choice between a period and a full stop depends your desired flow. A period provides a jolt, but a comma provides a smoother transition.

If the interjection is a question, then it should be followed by a question mark. An interjection often appears at the start of a sentence but not always. For example:

• Yay! We won.
• We won. Yay!
• The results are in, and, yay, we won.
(When an interjection appears in the middle of a sentence, use commas around the interjection.)

Video Lesson

This 4.5-minute video summarizes the lesson on interjections.

Are you a visual learner? Do you prefer video to text? Here is a list of all our grammar videos.

Printable Test