6 Conjunctions
When I want to remember what conjunctions do, I think of the word junction, which is a place where things (in my mind, I think of trains) meet or join together. That’s what conjunctions do — they join things together.
Sometimes conjunctions just join a few words together, like when I say I want “ham and pineapple” on my pizza. The word and is a conjunction that links the two words in that list: ham and pineapple. Other times, though, conjunctions connect larger parts of a sentence, like phrases and clauses, as in the examples below.
Tintoo enjoyed swimming lessons but hated getting wet.
(conjunction connects phrases “enjoyed swimming lessons” and “hated getting wet”)
Karla wanted chocolate, so she walked to the store.
(conjunction connects two clauses: “Karla wanted chocolate” and “she walked to the store”)
We’re going to focus on two types of conjunction in this chapter: coordinating conjunctions and subordinating conjunctions.
Coordinating Conjunctions
You might know these ones already; I used them in the sentences above. Coordinating conjunctions connect parts of a sentence that are equal — none of them is more important to the message than the others.
There aren’t many coordinating conjunctions out there, and there’s a handy acronym to remember them: FANBOYS.
- For
- And
- Nor
- But
- Or
- Yet
- So
Subordinating Conjunctions
Subordinating conjunctions are different from coordination conjunctions in two ways:
- They connect only clauses, groups of words containing a subject and a verb. A clause captures an idea within a sentence.
- While coordinating conjunctions connect things that are equally important, subordinating conjunctions connect clauses in a way that makes one of them more important than the other. When two clauses are connected like this, we call one the main clause and the other the subordinate clause or dependent clause.
We use subordinate clauses to make more complex, interesting sentences. Mixing up sentence structures and lengths makes writing more engaging for the reader.
The example below illustrates how subordinating clauses are used. Let’s begin with two separate clauses (ie., two separate ideas).
We consulted a map. We weren’t familiar with the area.
This sounds a little choppy and strange to me, and if I look closely at the two clauses I can see that they are related. The speaker looked at the map because they didn’t know the area. So I’m going to connect these clauses together into one sentence, using the subordinating conjunction because.
We consulted a map because we weren’t familiar with the area.
So what I’ve done here is added the word because to the second clause. When I do that I turn it into the subordinate clause. The other clause, the one that isn’t underlined, is the main clause. It’s the main idea in the sentence.
If you don’t like the order of ideas in that sentence above, that’s okay! You can flip the order of the clauses like this:
Because we weren’t familiar with the area, we consulted a map.
Notice that the subordinating conjunction moved (because it has to be at the start of the subordinating clause), and that I added a comma. When the subordinating clause comes first, place a comma between the two clauses.
Big List of Subordinating Conjunctions
after, although, as, as if, as long as, as soon as, as though, because, before, even if, even though, if, inasmuch as, lest, now that, once, provided (that), rather than, since, so that, supposing (that), than, that, though, till, unless, until, when, whenever, where, whereas, wherever, whether or not, while