WhatAreConjunctions?

Conjunctions are words that link other words, phrases, or clauses together. They are divided into 3 groups:

Ø Coordinating conjunctions

Ø Correlative conjunctions

Ø Subordinating conjunctions

1. Coordinating conjunctions allow you to join words, phrases, and clauses of equal grammatical rank in a sentence. The most common coordinating conjunctions are f or, and, nor, but, or, yet, and so; you can remember them by using the mnemonic device FANBOYS.

Connecting words

Which do you prefer? Red or blue?

Connecting phrases

The meal was very expensive and not very nice.

Connecting clauses

There are seats outside but some people don’t like sitting outdoors.

Connecting sentences

My grandmother’s name was Wall. But she became Jenkins when she got married to my grandfather.

Connecting prefixes

Pro- and anti-government supporters waited outside the parliament.

2. Correlative conjunctions are pairs of conjunctions that work together. Some examples are either/or, neither/nor, and not only/but also.

Neither Lisa nor Helena had been to Italy before.

Both you and I know what really happened.

3. Subordinating Conjunctionsjoin independent and dependent clauses. A subordinating conjunction can signal a cause-and-effect relationship, a contrast, or some other kind of relationship between the clauses. Common subordinating conjunctions are: after, (al)though, as, before, if, since, that, until, when, whereas, while, once, so, as soon as, provided that.

After we had talked on the phone, I wrote down what we had decided.

Before we left at four o’clock, we had something to eat.

As long as the waves are high enough, we can go surfing.

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