Eeek! I’ve sprung a leak!
!
Interjections show a reaction from the speaker.
Interjections are usually single words or short phrases spoken in reaction to something. “Oh!” “Hurrah!” “Oops!” “Ouch!” “Huh?” “Wow!” “Excuse me.” “Sorry.” “OMG!” “No.” “Yes.” “Ugh.” “Whew!”
Often, they appear with exclamation marks, but not necessarily. They may be written with a comma as part of the sentence or separated from it by a period or exclamation mark or even a question mark, depending on the emotion involved. The comma shows the least emotion.
Sometimes they are filler words and could be eliminated, but other times they show a reaction from the speaker that indicates an emotion or a hesitation.
Examples:
- “Oh, I didn’t know.”
- (with a comma)
- “Oh! I didn’t know!”
- (with an exclamation mark to denote surprise)
- “Hello, are you there?”
- (with a comma)
- “Hello? Are you there?”
- (indicates a stronger questioning)
- “Oops, I didn’t mean to hit you.”
- (with a comma)
- “Oops. I didn’t mean to hit you.”
- (the period does not make much difference, only a slightly longer pause after “Oops”)
- “Excuse me, I didn’t mean to step on your foot.”
- (with a comma)
- “Excuse me! I didn’t mean to step on your foot!”
- (stronger apology with an exclamation mark)
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