In Danish, the word ej [ɑ͜i] exists both as an adverb and as an interjection. In the written language, we often encounter the adverb ej which means ikke‘not’ or nej ‘no’, but in the spoken language, we mainly hear ej as an interjection. The two versions of ej sound similar and both have negating content, but they are used in different ways and are placed differently in the utterance. Ej in the spoken language begins the main clause or stands alone as the only element in a clause, where ej in the written language most often takes the last position in a sentence and only rarely begins it. The similarity in sound between the adverb and the interjection can be the reason why they are spelled in the same way by its users (e.g. on social media), which is why we use this way of spelling ej in spoken language, though it is also possible to find it transcribed as aj. 

The interjection ej can be pronounced in various ways. It can be very short but also long with varying intonation. There seems to be a connection between the interjection’s form and its function. There is a tendency for the short version to be present in constructions where they initiate, for example, an assessing action. It is not the ej in itself that makes the assessment but the action emerges from the residual part of the utterance. Ej as an interjection is therefore more used in a way of marking the subsequent assessing action. This can be seen in line 4 in the following excerpt:

Ej can also appear in a long version which often stand alone in an utterance and where the intonation can have big fluctuations from rising and afterwards falling drastically. This version of ej appears as independent utterances and, in this way, expresses an assessing action on its own. This is illustrated in line 2 and 4 in the following excerpt: