This mini episode teaches you five common (and interesting!) interjections.
Episode 193 of the Everybody ESL podcast is a mini episode that teaches you five common and interesting interjections. Send your questions about English and your suggestions for future episodes to EverybodyESL@gmail.com! (And let me know if you’d like to record the introduction to a future episode.)
Intro
"Hi! This is Nitun here, from Bangladesh. And you are listening to Everybody ESL. Enjoy."
Welcome to episode 193 of Everybody ESL, the podcast for everybody who wants to improve their English, practice their English, or just learn more English. My name is Ben, and I have a mini episode for you today, where I am going to teach you about one English topic. You can subscribe to the Everybody ESL podcast at Apple podcasts, on the Stitcher app, and wherever you find your podcasts. If you like Everybody ESL, leave it a good review so other people can find out about it, too. And if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for me, please send an email to everybodyESL@gmail.com. Okay! Let's get on with this mini episode.
The episode
For this episode, I would like to talk a little bit about interjections. Do you know what interjections are? Interjections are usually very short words that we use to express our reactions or our emotions or our attitudes. We often use interjections without even thinking about them. I think interjections often feel like they just come out of us automatically, without us having to think about them or plan them.
And I would like to teach you five interesting English interjections today. The first one is phew. Phew. That’s spelled p-h-e-w. Phew. It sounds exactly like the English word few (f-e-w). What does phew mean? When do we use phew? Phew expresses relief. When we are feeling very relieved, when we are surprised by something good, when we think something bad was going to happen but something good happens instead, or when we finally finish something difficult, we might say, “Phew!” That means “I feel good. I feel relieved.”
The next one is aw. A-w. Aw. Aw expresses disappointment or sympathy. If a friend tells you about a sad thing that has recently happened to them, you might reply by saying, “Aw.” That’s a way of expressing disappointment and sympathy. And if you stretch that aw out, it is often used to say, “I think that is cute” or “I think that is touching.” If something is very cute or if something is very emotionally moving—if it is touching to us—we might say, “Awww,” stretching that word out. And if you see this word spelled in very casual situations, you might see it spelled with many w’s. A-w-w-w-w. If somebody stretches it out, that means they are really trying to emphasize how cute they think something is or how touching they think it is.
The next one is oops. Oops. O-o-p-s. Oops has another form also, which is whoops. Whoops. W-h-o-o-p-s. Oops and whoops mean the same thing. They mean “I just realized that I made a mistake” or “I just realized that somebody else made a mistake.” Oops and whoops are quick ways of making that kind of reaction. They mean, “Oh, look! Somebody just made a mistake” or “Oh, no! I just made a mistake.” If I am typing on the computer keyboard, and I hit the wrong key—I type the wrong letter—I might say, “Oops!” I might say that even if I’m all by myself, because many interjections just sort of come out automatically without us having to think about them.
The next one is duh. Duh. That is spelled d-u-h. What does duh mean? Duh means “I think that is obvious. I don’t think that you needed to say that. I don’t think you needed to ask that question because the answer is obvious.” If I come to your house, and I knock on your door, and you open the door, and you see me, and I am all wet—my hair is wet, my clothes are wet, my shoes are wet—and you say to me, “Oh! Is it raining outside?” I might answer, “Duh.” Now, that’s not a very polite answer. But what that answer means is “Of course it’s raining.” Isn’t it obvious? Duh expresses that kind of feeling. It’s another way of saying, “I think that is obvious” or “everyone knows that.”
And the last interjection that I want to tell you about today ta-da, which we usually spell t-a-hyphen-d-a. What does ta-da mean? Ta-da means “I am announcing something” or “I am revealing something.” And we always say ta-da in this way. We always say it almost like it’s part of a song. We say “Ta-da!” It’s almost like we’re singing it when we say it. We say, “Ta-da!” Let’s say today was the day when your friend was trying to get her driver’s license. And later that day she comes to your house, and you say to her, “Well? Did you pass the test? Did you get your driver’s license?” And she holds the driver’s license out to you and says, “Ta-da!” That is a way of saying, “Look! I am making an announcement” or “I am revealing something to you. I’m displaying something new to you, or something interesting or exciting.”
The five interjections we talked about today were phew, aw, oops (or whoops), duh, and ta-da. And I think it’s important that you know all of these interjections.
Outro
And that's the end of episode 193 of Everybody ESL. Remember: if you have any questions about English, or if you have comments or suggestions about the podcast, or if you would like to record an introduction that I can use at the beginning of future episodes—the same way Nitun recorded the introduction you heard at the beginning of this episode—send an email to everybodyESL@gmail.com. I'll be back soon with another episode, and until then, keep going, keep practicing, and keep learning. Goodbye. I'll see you soon.