Part of Speech: Conjunction

The conjunction is the part of speech used as a “joiner” for words, phrases, or clauses in a particular sentence. It links these words or groups of words together, in such a way that certain relationships among these different parts of the sentence will be established, and the thoughts that all of these convey will be connected.

What are the Different Types of Conjunctions?

In the English language, conjunctions come in three basic types: the coordinating conjunctions, the subordinating conjunctions, and the correlative conjunctions.

1. Coordinating Conjunction
Among the three types of conjunctions, this is probably the most common one. The main function of coordinating conjunctions is to join words, phrases, and clauses together, which are usually grammatically equal. Aside from that, this type of conjunctions is placed in between the words or groups of words that it links together, and not at the beginning or at the end.

Examples:

Pizza and burgers are my favorite snacks.
In the sample sentence above, the underlined word serves as a coordinating conjunction that links two words together (pizza + burgers).

The treasure was hidden in the cave or in the underground lagoon.
The example above shows how coordinating conjunctions can join together two (or more) phrases. The coordinating conjunction “or” in the sentence above links “in the cave” and “in the underground lagoon.”

What those girls say and what they actually do are completely different.
In this sentence, you’ll see how the same coordinating conjunction ”and” from the first sample sentence can be used to link clauses together (“what those girls say” and “what they actually do”), instead of just single words.
If, on the other hand, you are linking more than two words, phrases, and dependent clauses together, a series of commas must be placed in between the distinct elements.
Examples:

spiders, snakes, and scorpions
in the bedroom, in the garage, or at the garden
Lastly, for joining together two independent clauses, a comma must be used before placing the coordinating conjunction.
Examples:

Cassandra fell asleep, so Joaquin just went home.
I don’t really like spaghetti, but I can eat lasagna any day.
For you to easily recall the different coordinating conjunctions that you can use, you can just remember the word “FANBOYS,” which stands for:

Conjunction

2. Subordinating Conjunction
This type of conjunctions is used in linking two clauses together. Aside from the fact that they introduce a dependent clause, subordinating conjunctions also describe the relationship between the dependent clause and the independent clause in the sentence.

List of Common Subordinating Conjunctions:

while
as soon as
although
before
even if
because
no matter how
whether
wherever
when
until
after
as if
how
if
provided
in that
once
supposing
while
unless
in case
as far as
now that
as
so that
though
since
Sample Sentences:

It is so cold outside, so I brought you a jacket.
Because it is so cold outside, I brought you a jacket.
By looking at the sentences above, you will easily notice that a subordinating conjunction can be found either at the beginning of the sentence or between the clauses that it links together. Aside from that, a comma should also be placed in between the two clauses (independent clause and dependent clause) of the sentence.

3. Correlative Conjunction
The correlative conjunctions are simply pairs of conjunctions which are used to join equal sentence elements together.

List of Common Correlative Conjunctions:

either… or
neither… nor
not only… but also
both… and
whether… or
so… as
Sample Sentences:

Both my brother and my father are lawyers.
I can’t decide whether I’ll take Chemical Engineering or take Medical Technology in college.
What is a Conjunctive Adverb?

Although a conjunctive adverb is not a real conjunction, this kind of words functions as conjunctions in a sentence. Some examples of conjunctive adverbs are:

in addition
for example
however
therefore
on the contrary
hence
in fact
otherwise
as a result
indeed
still
thus
furthermore
instead
incidentally
after all
finally
likewise
meanwhile

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