What are Conjunctions?
Conjunctions connect words, phrases of clauses in sentences. Conjunctions can show connections, relationships and importance between parts of a sentence.
There are four types of conjunctions:
- Coordinating Conjunctions
- Correlative Conjunctions
- Subordinating Conjunctions
- Conjunctive Adverbs
Coordinating Conjunctions
Coordinating conjunctions connect elements of equal value in the sentence. There are seven coordination conjunctions in English——the FANBOYS.
- For
- And
- Nor
- But
- Or
- Yet
- So
For example:
Reading and phrenology are my two favorite subjects.
Reading and phrenology are both subjects in this sentence and carry equal importance.
Park your car in a designated space or it will be crushed into a cube.
Park your car in a designated space and it will be crushed into a cube are both independent clauses of equal weight in the sentence.
Correlative Conjunctions
Correlative conjunctions also connect elements of equal grammatical value, but with the added challenge of parallelism, subject-verb agreement and pronoun agreement. Correlative conjunctions always come in pairs.
- as…as
- both…and
- not only…but also
- either…or
- neither…nor
- whether…or
For example:
I had hoped that not only would the hair stylist cut my hair into a Mohawk, but also that she would dye my hair electric blue.
and
Neither the ventriloquist nor his dummy had any idea why they couldn’t manage to get a second date.
Parallelism
When using correlative conjunctions, you must always make sure the grammatical structure of the first half of your sentence matches the second half.
For example:
We both ran and climbed away from the zombie horde.
Both ran and climbed are past tense verbs.
The ever-present sound of the zombies clawing on the door was both extremely terrifying and surprisingly hypnotic.
Both extremely terrifying and surprisingly hypnotic are adverb-adjectives.
Subject-Verb Agreement
If you are using correlative conjunctions, the verb in your sentence must agree with the second half of the correlative pair.
For example:
Neither Cindy nor the Simpson twins like my asparagus quiche.
In this sentence, the subjects Cindy and the Simpson twins are combined with the conjunction neither…nor. The Simpson twins come second in the sentence and are closest to the verb, so the verb like must be plural as well.
Neither the Simpson twins nor Cindy likes my asparagus quiche.
In this example, the twins come first and Cindy second, so the verb is singular.
Pronoun Agreement
Whenever you use a pronoun in a sentence, it must match its closest antecedent (the noun that the pronoun takes the place of) in point of view, number and gender.
For example:
Both the zombies and the mummy regularly complain about his limbs falling off.
and
Both the mummy and the zombies regularly complain about their limbs falling off.
In the first example, the mummy is the closest antecedent, so the pronoun is his. In the second example, the mummies are listed second in the sentence, so we use their.
Subordinating Conjunctions
Subordinating conjunctions link a subordinate (dependent) clause to an independent clause while providing a transition between two ideas. The subordinating conjunction also indicates which clause is more important in the sentence.
Examples of subordinating conjunctions are:
- After
- Although
- Because
- Before
- Even if
- Even though
- If
- Rather than
- Since
- Though
- Unless
- Until
- When
- Whenever
- Whether
- While
For example:
After he spent six weeks in a full-body cast, Edward decided never to attempt unicycle-snowboarding again.
In this sentence, Edward decided… is the more important idea in the sentence, while he spent six weeks… is less important, and is introduced by the subordinate clause after.
Conjunctive Adverbs
Conjunctive adverbs show the relationship between independent clauses or sentences. Common conjunctive adverbs include:
- However
- Therefore
- Moreover
- Nevertheless
Your punctuation depends on where you use the conjunctive adverb in the sentence. If it is at the beginning or middle of the sentence but not used to link a second clause, use a comma or commas to set is apart from the rest of the sentence.
For example:
The Tyrannosaurus Rex went extinct 65 million years ago. Therefore, I could not get one for my birthday like I asked for.
and
I decided that a pterodactyl would make a much better pet than a T-Rex. I discovered, however, that pterodactyls went extinct around the same time as the T-Rex.
When the conjunctive adverb introduces a second clause in the sentence, use a semicolon before and a comma after the conjunctive adverb.
For example:
I eventually got a parakeet as a pet; nevertheless, I comfort myself by thinking of my parakeet as a tiny, modern dinosaur.
Grammaphile 