Conjunctions

Conjunctions are words that link sentences, phrases, and sometimes other words. 

Read the following sentences: 

I enjoy cooking. I enjoy eating. I don’t particularly appreciate doing the dishes afterwards.  

Writing something in bits of pieces can be awkward as the reader might feel that he/she is trying to comprehend some broken thoughts. This is exactly what has happened in the above sentences. You’d have to explain every complex notion in a succession of short, simple sentences if you do not use conjunctions. Conjunctions allow you to construct rich, elegant statements without the choppiness that several short sentences might cause. 

Conjunctions can be primarily classified into three: 

• Coordinating conjunction 
• Subordinating conjunction 
• Correlative conjunctions 

Let us take a look at the different types of conjunctions:

Coordinating conjunctions: 

Read the sentence: 

• Fish can swim and birds can fly. 

In this sentence, we can see two independent statements or clauses of equal importance or rank. Hence, we can say that the conjunction, and, that is used to join these two statements is a coordinating conjunction. 

Now, let us define what a coordinating conjunction is: 

The conjunctions that join words, phrases, and clauses of the same grammatical rank in a sentence are called coordinating conjunctions. The most common coordinating conjunctions are for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so, etc; the mnemonic device FANBOYS can help you remember the seven coordinating conjunctions. Other frequently used coordinating conjunctions are either….or, neither….nor. 

Examples: 

• I am hosting a party this weekend and you are invited. 
• You must study, or you will fail. 
• You can find him in the library or at the nearby café. 
• Mark is a hard-working employee, but the company always undermines his efforts. 

Subordinating conjunctions: 

Conjunctions that join independent and dependent clauses are calledsubordinating conjunctions. A subordinating conjunction can indicate a cause-and-effect link, a contrast, or any other relationship between sentences. Because, after, if, that, till, unless, where, as, although, though, while, whereas, etc. are the chiefsubordinating conjunctions. 

Many of us were taught in school that starting a sentence with a conjunction is incorrect; this is a myth. The subordinating conjunctioncan be used to begin a sentence, but it must be included in the dependent clause. 

Examples: 

• After the rain was over, it was hot again. 
• As he didn’t pick up the call, we had to leave him behind. 
• You will clear the test if you work hard. 
• Give me the keys before you leave for the conference. 

Correlative conjunctions: 

Conjunctions that are used in pair are called correlative conjunctions. Some of the most commonly used correlative conjunctions are either-or, neither-nor, both-and, whether-or, etc. 

Examples: 

• You may either come with me or stay here. 
• This answers is neither terrible nor amazing. 
• I both love and admire his work ethics.