INTERJECTIONS Our last part of speech!

Once upon a time, …there was a cave man named Clyde.

One day, Clyde went out to have a picnic lunch of grilled snake meat and pickled pterodactyl eggs. He had just settled down to eat when…from the depths of the nearby peat bog- came and army of ants determined to carry away as much of his lunch as possible.

Clyde was enraged! He sprang to his feet, raised his club, and proceeded to bash as many ants as he could!

Unfortunately, in his enthusiasm, he got a wee bit careless and accidentally whacked his big toe.

Clyde expressed his discomfort and anger in purely “purple” prose!

Later that night, ..as Clyde sat around the campfire and told his family about his experience, he raised his club to demonstrate how he smashed the ants—and his toe. As he told and retold his story, people began associating his raised club with times of emotion and instead of calling the words he used, “purple prose,” …

They called them interjections and used a picture of Clyde’s club to mark them in their cave paintings.

However… One member of the clan, mild mannered Ned Neanderthal, was not impressed. He said he always remained cool and calm and never used strong emotions. Yet, he did like to throw expressions like, “well,” and “Oh,” into his conversations. How could he show those words?

The village elders met… They came up with a wonderful idea. A club with a line through it would represent those mild words which Ned liked to throw into a sentence, and instead of following them with an exclamation mark, they’d put a little calmer mark after them. , instead of !

The Long Island branch of the tribe had trouble pronouncing “calmer” and turned it into the word “comma.” That name stuck ever since!

YIPE! The saber tooth tiger is coming this way! To this day, we honor Clyde and Ned. When we throw in a word of strong emotion, we call it an interjection and punctuate it like this in a sentence: YIPE! The saber tooth tiger is coming this way!

Well, I can see your side of the story. When we throw in a word that is mild and shows little or no emotion, we still call it an interjection, but we punctuate it like this is a sentence: Well, I can see your side of the story.

And that’s the story of Clyde, Ned and interjections!

Let’s Review . . . The interjection is the last of the eight parts of speech. Just for the record, here are all eight: Noun Pronoun Adjective Verb Adverb Preposition Conjunction Interjection Article is in here too!

First, let's start with a basic definition: An interjection is a word which is just THROWN into a sentence. It has no relationship to the rest of the sentence.

INTERJECTIONS MOST OFTEN SHOWS STRONG FEELING OR EMOTION. YIPES! WOW! UGH! OUCH!

INTERJECTIONS Interjections which show strong feeling or emotion are followed by an EXCLAMATION mark. Also, and EXCLAMATION mark usually comes at the end of the sentence that follows. Yipe! The river is over the bank! Ugh! That’s disgusting!

Use ! as a symbol for an interjection which shows strong feeling. INTERJECTIONS Use ! as a symbol for an interjection which shows strong feeling.

INTERJECTIONS Sometimes an interjection does not show strong feeling or emotion. Oh, Ok, Well,… Mild interjections are followed by a COMMA and the rest of the sentence. Oh, I didn’t know that. Ok, I’ll meet you at noon. Well, we could try again later.

INTERJECTIONS The symbol for a mild interjection is an exclamation mark with a line through it. (!)

INTERJECTIONS Clues in the SENTENCE determine whether the interjection is being used to show strong emotion or not. Well, I didn’t know the reason. (mild) Well! See if I care! (strong feeling)

Interjections: Interjections may be followed by either commas or exclamation points. Examples: Ouch! That hurt! Oh, what a wonderful movie! Great! What a terrific idea! Aha! I've found your secret! Alas, the poet was no more.

WOW! It’s almost time for the quiz! Take a moment to brush up on interjections.

Interjection Quiz Identify the interjections in the following sentences. Goodness! He listened to the man's story and reported it to the police immediately! Oh, I haven't seen my brother since he left for college! Oops! I dropped the jelly. No! Don't touch that! Help! I'm about to fall! The poor dear was, alas, destitute and hungry. Wait! Don't leave me behind in this cave! Ah, I've heard that trick before.