Conjunctions are used to:
connect clauses or sentences
Coordinating conjunctions include and, but, or, nor, for, yet, so.
- Joining nouns: We can have seafood, pasta, or curry for dinner.
- Joining verbs: The children ran, swam, and laughed all afternoon.
- Joining adjectives: The house on the corner looks dark and mysterious.
- Joining phrases: He left on time but arrived late because of the traffic.
- Joining clauses: They were disappointed in him, for (because) he forgot to bring the VR goggles.
- Yet: It was a very long movie, yet I enjoyed it. It was long, yet fun.
Coordinating conjunctions are used to join two parts of a sentence. The two parts may be single words or clauses. For example:
Tim went to Hawaii and Susan went to Corsica.
The sun was shining, but I didn’t go outside.
Subordinating conjunctions are used to join a subordinate dependent clause to a main clause, for example:
I went skiing although it was very cold.
Subordinating conjunctions include after, although, as, as if, as long as, as much as, as soon as, as though, because, before, by the time, even if, even though, if, in order that, in case, once, only if, provided that, since, so that, than, that, though, till, unless, until, when, whenever, where, wherever, while.
Examples:
- It was snowing by the time we arrived. By the time we arrived, it was snowing.
- I don’t want to see the movie because it’s not a comedy.
- She will attend the meeting as long as it’s ends by 6 PM.
- We can start eating as soon as the guests arrive.
- I have to buy popcorn before the movie starts.
- They won’t want to join us for dinner unless we go to a vegetarian restaurant.
- I will not be able to spend the day at the pool, as much as I would like to. As much as I would like to, I will not be able to spend the day at the pool
Correlative Conjunctions are used in pairs.
Tip: Correlative conjunctions connect two equal (grammatical) words
- verb/verb; noun/noun; pronoun/pronoun; adjective/adjective
- You can join either the music club or the art club.
- You can either go to the concert or see a play.
- You can have either a banana or an orange.
- You can either eat a banana or drink a glass of juice.
- You can join neither the music club nor the art club.
- You can neither go to the concert nor see a play.
- You can have neither a banana nor an orange.
- You can neither eat a banana nor drink a glass of juice.
Some other examples:
- both… and: The dogs are both cute and smart.
- either… or, neither… nor: The sweater is neither blue nor green.
- not only… but also: It’s not only cold, but also dark.
- whether… or: I’m buying that car, whether expensive or not.
- rather… than: We’d rather cold than hot soup.
Conjunctions can be:
- a single word
for example: and, but, because, although - a compound (often ending with as or that)
for example: provided that, as long as, in order that - a correlative (connects two equal words: verb/verb; noun/noun; pronoun/pronoun; adjective/adjective … )
WHERE do conjunctions go?
- Coordinating conjunctions always come between the words or clauses that they join.
- Tim and Susan are playing tennis.
- Subordinating conjunctions usually come at the beginning of a sentence or subordinate clause.
- I went swimming although it was very cold. Although it was very cold, I went swimming.
- Correlative Conjunctions work in pairs, like a tag team.
- This cake contains neither chocolate nor nuts.
- We could either see a movie or go to a restaurant.
- I would neither like to see a movie nor go to a restaurant.
