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When someone is impressed by something, or taken aback, they will sometimes make a noise that is usually typed out as, “Oof!” However, the “f” isn’t always vocalized. Sometimes it’s just a flow of air that follows an “oo” sound. So, the “oof” sound isn’t necessarily a word, but a sound in an of itself - like a sigh, a huff, or a scoff.

Imagine, if you will, someone seeing a beautiful car. They might say, “Oof! Look at that car!”

If you were to transcribe that sentence, what word would you use to describe the “oof” sound?

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    Oof is the conventional spelling for that interjection. And since English spelling does not represent English pronunciation, it doesn't matter whether the final /f/ is present or not. Most spoken English is not really representable in writing the way it's spoken -- it's fulla contractions n variations n all kindza stuff. So don worry about it.
    – John Lawler
    Sep 20, 2022 at 23:43
  • In New York, we considered it Italian street talk blending a grunt, Wow, and Oh No! Could be a mini minced F bomb.
    – Yosef Baskin
    Sep 21, 2022 at 3:27

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This is called an exclamation. (Collins Dictionary). An exclamation is a sound, word, or sentence that is spoken suddenly, loudly, or emphatically and that expresses excitement, admiration, shock, or anger. Here (Oxford Language Club) is a list of common exclamatory words.

Psst, here (English Grammar) is another list. Yoo-hoo. Happy exclamation.

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  • If you're looking for an Official Part Of Speech, it's the last and least one on the list, the Interjection. Remember, at the end, "Prepositions, Conjunctions, and Interjections"?
    – John Lawler
    Sep 21, 2022 at 14:29
  • Please edit your answer so that it follows our Help Center's guidance on how to reference work by others. We are not a link farm, and a bare unattributed link does no one any good. Our reuse licence allows for plain-text reuse, and so the link would be lost if not given in actual text.
    – tchrist ♦
    Sep 27, 2022 at 14:54
  • Provided link, name of source and meaning if word/words is not in common use
    – banuyayi
    Sep 27, 2022 at 15:52

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