INTERJECTIONS





INTERJECTIONS

Interjections are invariabile words used to express moods and feelings: joy, surprise, anger, pain, impatience, fear. They don’t have syntactical functions, nor they link to other elements of the phrase. They have a great expressive charge e they give the sentence a particular tone.

Depending on the form, they are divided into categories:

interiezioni proprie, proper interjections;
interiezioni improprie, improper interjections;
locuzioni interiettive, interjective phrases.


•    Proper interjections

The proper interjection, interiezioni proprie, are words having only interjection’s functions: ah, eh, oh, ahi, ohi, bah, mah, uffa, ahimè, etc. Some of them, such as bah, mah e uffa have a particular meaning: bah e mah suggest uncertainty, uffa suggests boredom and impatience. However, most of the interjections has an unspecific meaning and assumes different tones depending on the context. For example, ah! can express joy (Ah! Che bella giornata!), regret (Ah, potessi tornare giovane!), pain (Ah! Che male!).

For example: Uffa, che noia! Andiamo via da qui! (Phew, what a bore! Let’s go away from here!)
                  Bah, piove ancora. (Bah, it’s still raining.)
                  Ahimè, che tristezza! (Alas, what a sadness!)


•    Improper interjections

They are different parts of the speech, like nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs. They are used as interjection to express astonishment or anger, to greet, to exhort and so on.
Are improper interjections, interiezioni improprie, for example: maledizione! (damn!), accidenti! (what the hell!), bene! (good!) bravo! (well done!), evviva! (hurray!), peccato! (what a pity!) ciao! (hi!) salve! (hello!)

For example: Ciao! Dove stai andando?(Hi! Where are you going?)
                  Maledizione! Stiamo perdendo la partita! (Damn! We are losing the match!)
                  Bravo! Hai preso 30 all’esame! (Well done! You get the best mark at the exam!)


•    Interjective phrases

They are groups of words or short sentences used in exclamation sentences.
Are interjective phrases, locuzioni interiettive: al ladro! (stop thief!), al fuoco! (fire!), poveri noi! (poor us!), santo cielo! (for godness sake!), and similar.

For example:
Non ho più il portafoglio! Al ladro! (I can’t find my wallet! Stop thief!)

Poveri noi! Come faremo adesso? (Poor us! What can we do now?)
Santo cielo, che meraviglia questo giardino! (For godness sake, what a wonderful garden!)


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