Interjections

Lesson Plan - Get It!

Audio:

Look at the image for the video below. How do you think the boy in the blue shirt feels? What do you think he's saying?

Let's Find Out How That Older Brother Feels

Judging by his face, he doesn't look very happy. In fact, he looks like he may even be in a bit of pain. Take a look at the Charlie Bit My Finger- Ouch Charlie that really hurts! video below and see exactly what is happening:

Interjections!

It looks like Charlie may have sunk a few teeth into his older brother, and we can tell by big brother's reaction that it hurt. In fact, Charlie's brother even said the word, "Ouch!"

Words like "Ouch, "Wow," and "Boogers!" are called interjections. You probably use interjections every day without even knowing it.

For example:

• Ouch! That hurt my foot.
• Hey! Wait for me.
• Wow! Our soccer team just won the game.

An interjection is like a shout at the beginning of a sentence. We put strong feeling or emotion into one word to express things like happiness, sadness, excitement, anger, disgust, horror, and shock.

You can even invent your own interjections.

For example:

• Jumping toads! Did I really run that fast?
• Bonkers! What a silly thing to do.

You might think of an interjection as a pinch of spice to add zing to a sentence or story, and it does just that. Remember, though, too many interjections can lose their punch and make your sentences sound silly. Using too many interjections is like using too much spice — it’s too much!

For example:

• Wow! She dropped that book on my toes. Ouch! That hurt. Yikes! Why don’t you be more careful?

A Little Less Loud

You might have noticed that some interjections have an exclamation point after them. This is because the emotion is very strong. If we wanted to show an emotion or feeling that isn’t as strong, we would use a comma after the interjection, like this:

• Aww man, I wanted to go, too.
• Oh, that’s the book I wanted.

When we use an interjection, we have to decide whether we want to show strong or weak emotion. Is the emotion a shout or a sigh? Once we decide, we use either an exclamation point or a comma. Interjections have no grammatical connection to the rest of the sentence. They are simply thrown, or interjected, into the sentence.

Let's Watch a Video to Review

As you watch Schoolhouse Rock: "Interjections" with your teacher, write down as many interjections as you can. See if you can list a few that use commas as well as those that use exclamation points: