Hello everyone welcome to the class. So in this class we are learning some interesting
ways to express yourself through interjections. Yes these are words where you express your
emotions. But in this lesson you are going to learn in a special way through a conversation
between me your tutor for the day Michelle and my friend Rebecca. Please watch the conversation.
Rebecca: “Oh I have to call Michelle.... Aah let me call her".
Michelle: Oh! finally she's calling. ...." Hi Rebecca".
Rebecca: " Hi Michelle. Michelle guess what?"
Michelle: “So tell me, what is it that you wanna share".
Rebecca: “I have something good and bad as well to tell you. What should I tell you
first?"
Michelle: "Aah... I guess I'll go with the good part first".
Rebecca: “My son got a full scholarship to Harvard".
Michelle: “Wow! That's good for him. So what is it that he's going to study at Harvard?"
Rebecca: " He's gonna study law at Howard".
Michelle: "Aah…..aa... law sounds great"
Rebecca: “Not only that, I got a promotion at work".
Michelle: “Wow! That’s another good news. Congratulations".
Rebecca: "Now let me tell you the sad part”. Shaul got fired from job today".
Michelle: "Woo…. I'm so sorry to hear that. Ow!Oops I got a cramp in my shoulder".
Rebecca: "Whoops is that painful?"
Michelle: "Ew....Eeks".
Rebecca: "What happened now?
Michelle:"Eee... I just saw a dead rat under the table."
Rebecca: "Ah… dead rat. I just hate them". Hey did you know that you can share pictures
on Facebook?"
Michelle: "Duh"
Rebecca; "No that's not it. You can now have a video instead of your profile picture. Isn't
isn't that great?”
Michelle: “ Whoop-dee-doo!”.
Rebecca: “Well my profile video is with Tom Cruise. Saw him at the airport last weekend
and couldn't miss the opportunity".
Michelle: "Well, La-dee- dah"
Rebecca: "I’m sure you are jealous".
Michelle: "In your dreams".
Rebecca: "Michelle you sound kind of frustrated today. Why is that so?"
Michelle: "Yeah you gotta hear my side of the story to find out, why I'm so frustrated?
You know what happened? I was talking to Jessie my colleague at work this morning and I was
actually cribbing about my boss. I was saying, what a slave driver he is and suddenly I heard
the sound, Uhem... . I heard his Ahem and I was like gone and I knew that it was
him".
Rebecca: "Doh.. That was stupid of you".
Michelle: "Gah.. I guess I lost my job. He's gonna can me for sure".
Rebecca: "Bah! You never liked him anyways. Ah! Just a minute, I'm getting another call.
Can I call you back?"
So here we are in the classroom trying to find out, what did Rebecca and Michelle talk
about? What were all these words that you heard? Like "Ah... Wow".
So starting with the first one, Aah. Isn't that what Michelle said? " Aah... let's talk
about the good part first". So what is she trying to do, when she says Aah. With that
monotone? She is thinking, when you use the word Aah in a monotone or in a flat tone.
You're trying to think something or you're trying to think for an answer. Think for an
answer. Let's look at the next one, Wow! Rebecca's son got a scholarship in Harvard. Isn't that
amazing? Am I excited about it? Do I look happy? Yes you can use the word wow to express
happiness or joy. It was really sad that Rebecca's husband Shaul lost his job, it’s really
sad so said, Wow, he lost his job. Which means that you can use the same word to express
joy or also to express sadness? Please watch the conversation first and come back to learn
more interjections.
Michelle: "Ow ! Oops I got a cramp in my shoulder".
Rebecca: "Whoops is that painful?"
Let's look at the next interjection that I used. Of course I'm quite silly and I'm talking
over the phone. I got a shoulder cramp and I said "Oops I got a shoulder cramp". So the
word Oops here I used it to express a mistake. So if you made a mistake, if you dropped a
glass of water, if you spilled a glass of water. You would say, "Oops I spilled the
water" Which means that you made a mistake. To make a mistake. In return to my mistake
Rebecca responded "Whoops". This is the way you can respond to a mistake, so somebody
made a mistake in front of you by spilling some water on the table. You'd reply “Whoops",
which itself is self-explanatory. You don't have to say, "Whoops", you spilled the water;
you could simply say, "Whoops" Which is response to a mistake. Go ahead watch the conversation
and then we are going to find out the meaning for these interjections.
Michelle: "Ew....Eeks".
Rebecca: "What happened now?"
Michelle: "Eee... I just saw a dead rat under the table."
Rebecca: "Ah… dead rat. I just hate them".
So here we have the first interjection on the board. Ew...Eeks. When did I say that?
When I saw a dead rat under the table. This interjection is used to express disgust means
how bad it is? I was just irritated to see that, so you use the expression Eek or Ew
to express disgust.
Let's look at the next one, "Ah... I hate them". That's exactly what Rebecca said, she
hates rats or dead rats for that matter. And Ah.. Can also be used to express disgust or
content that is your hatred towards something. To express contempt or hatred. No offense
to those people who love rats, but some of us really don't like them. Alright you must
have noticed that we've used this same word Aah and Ah. It's the same expression but with
the different tone. So here we are using the expression Aah to express that we are thinking.
But here we've used the same expression to say that, we hate something. Can you also
use Aah in different ways? What if you just found a lost key that you were looking for,
" Aah... I just found it". So whenever you find something suddenly or maybe you were
trying to solve a math problem and you were not able to find the answer for a long time.
And suddenly you understand the question. You'd be like, "Aah.. Got it". So you can
use this expression to express your surprise when you suddenly find something. When you
find something suddenly. Go ahead and find out, what else did Rebecca and Michelle talk
about?
Rebecca: “Hey did you know that you can share pictures on Facebook?"
Michelle: "Duh"
Rebecca; "No that's not it. You can now have a video instead of your profile picture.
Isn't that great?”
Michelle: “Whoop-dee-doo!”.
Rebecca: “Well my profile video is with Tom Cruise. Saw him at the airport last weekend
and couldn't miss the opportunity".
Michelle: "Well, La-dee- dah"
Rebecca: "I’m sure you are jealous".
Michelle: "In your dreams".
So how did you like the conversation further, so they have started talking about Facebook.I'm
sure you're interested in that topic as well and Rebecca made a very obvious statement
to Michelle. She told her that these days you can post pictures on Facebook. Who doesn't
know that? We all know that we all can post pictures on Facebook. We've been doing it
for ages now. I'm sure you do it like more than once a day. So the word, Duh is what
I responded to her obvious statement. This is a response to an obvious statement, where
everyone knows the answer. So she told me, Do you know we can post pictures on Facebook?
And I said, Duh.. We all know that, so this is a response to an obvious situation. Obvious
statement. You'll often hear native speakers use this expression and when they say it,
you must understand that you've said something very obvious, which everyone knows about.
Let's look at the next one, “Whoop-dee-doo". So this expression means that you really don't
care. So my friend Rebecca told me that now there's a new feature of Facebook. Where instead
of a picture you can post a video for your profile. And I said okay, who cares coz I'm
not a frequent Facebook user. So I said "Whoop-dee-doo" I really don't care. On top of everything
Rebecca was bragging about her new profile picture with Tom Cruise. But do you think
it matters to me? Not at all, so when someone is bragging or trying to show that they are
very superior. You could respond, "La-dee- dah". Which means I just don’t care? It
doesn't matter to me, it doesn't matter. Watch the rest of the conversation to learn the
remaining interjections.
Rebecca: "Michelle you sound kind of frustrated today. Why is that so?"
Michelle: "Yeah you gotta hear my side of the story to find out, why I'm so frustrated?
You know what happened? I was talking to Jessie my colleague at work this morning and I was
actually cribbing about my boss. I was saying, what a slave driver he is and suddenly I heard
the sound, Uhem... Ahem. I heard his Ahem and I was like gone and I knew that it was
him".
Rebecca: "Doh... That was stupid of you".
Michelle: "Gah.. I guess I lost my job. He's gonna can me for sure.
Rebecca: "Bah! You never liked him anyways. "Ah... Just a minute, I'm getting another
call. Can I call you back?"
Let's look at the first interjection on the board, coz now you've heard why I was so frustrated?
So my friend Rebecca told me “Michelle you look really frustrated today" and I told her
“Yeah I'm really frustrated, but for that you need to hear my part of the story". And
you know I did something very silly, I was talking about my boss and I had no idea that
he could be listening to me. And while I was talking to my friend at work Jessie and I
was saying that my boss is a slave driver. I heard a voice in the background saying Ahem...
What is the sound called? It's called Ahem, which is to draw someone's attention and I
was sharing the story with Rebecca and she said "Doh.. That was stupid". So whenever
you do a stupid activity, you could respond to it with "Doh... That was stupid" for something
stupid. And now I'm really hopeless and worried that I could lose my job. So my hopelessness
is expressed with "Gah.. I guess I lost my job." So you use this expression "Gah", when
you're feeling hopeless and you feel that nothing can be done. So if you're looking
for a job and you're not able to find one, you could say "Gah.. I think I'll never find
a job". To express despair. In response to the story that I shared with Rebecca, she
told me" Bah you never liked your boss anyway, so it's okay even if you lose the job". But
her expression makes me feel that she is not too concerned. So the word "Bah" means whatever.
So these are similar expressions that you can use, but they have different meanings.
So be careful with your usage and the moral of the story is Rebecca is not such a great
friend, coz she really doesn't care about how I feel. I hope this lesson was fun for
you. Please come back for more fun learning lesson with me Michelle. Bye, bye.