CONJUNCTION

A conjunction is a word that joins two parts of a sentence like ‘and’, ‘or’ , ‘because’.

We could say “Peter likes fruit. He also likes vegetables”, however we can make this one sentence with the conjunction ‘and’.

“Peter likes fruit and he also likes vegetables.”

3 types of conjunctions

There are 3 types of conjunctions:

• Coordinating
• Subordinating
• Correlative

1. ‘Coordinating conjunctions’ which we can remember with the mnemonic, ‘fanboys’.

2. Subordinating conjunctions’ include:
–for, as, since, therefore, hence, as a result, consequently, though, due to, provided that, because of, unless, as a result of, and so/so that.

since

due to

because of

therefore

as a result of

so

so that

though

hence

for

since

consequently

provided that

unless

They are used for ‘subordinate clauses’.

A clause is a part of a sentence. There is a person/thing and an action which that person/thing does or did.

A subordinate clause is a clause which cannot exist by itself. It needs to have another clause, ‘a main clause’ to have any meaning.

If we said ‘…because he needed it’.

This has no meaning. It is a clause because we have a person, ‘he’ and we have a verb ‘needed’, but we must have more information for this to make sense.

If say ‘He took the phone because he needed it‘ we now have a sentence with actual meaning. The phrase ‘He took the phone‘ is the main clause. We could say ‘He took the phone.‘ and it would still have meaning by itself.

3. Correlative conjunctions.

These are conjunctions often used for two possibilities or are used together.

They include ‘either/or’, ‘neither/nor’, ‘both/not only’.

For example:

‘You can study either Maths or English this term but not both.’

‘You can choose to eat either vegetarian or fish meal.’

‘I saw neither of them in the class, Peter nor John that day.’