HELP Yourself Resource Transcript: Conjunctions Part 2
This video is a short introduction to conjunctions and linkers and their use in English. These words are sometimes called linking words or cohesive devices. After watching, you should work through some of the activities below. You should also review the use of conjunctions in a good grammar reference book.
Conjunctions are words that join together other words, phrases, clauses, or sentences. You have probably read or heard almost every conjunction in the English language, and for that reason some students may think that conjunctions are simple. But, conjunctions do more than just glue sentences together; conjunctions connect your ideas. Conjunctions help a reader understand and follow the logic of your writing, and for that reason, it is important that you understand how best to use them.
There are three types of conjunctions: coordinating, correlative, and subordinate. There is also a fourth group of words that you can use to join together your ideas called conjunctive adverbs. It is useful to know these different groupings because the words of each group have some similar characteristics.
Coordinating conjunctions
First, let’s start with the easy ones, the coordinating conjunctions. These are words like and, but, or, so, and a few others. Coordinating conjunctions are very versatile and can be used in many different ways to join subjects, verbs, and sentences. When joining two sentences, coordinating conjunctions are usually preceded by a comma.
Correlative conjunctions
The second group is the correlative conjunctions. These conjunctions are pairs of words that can be used to give equal weight to two ideas in a sentence. Some examples of correlative conjunctions are either...or, not only...but also, and neither...nor…
Correlative conjunctions are used mostly with compound subjects or compound predicates. In the example on your screen “neither the CEO nor the board of directors” is the subject of the verb ‘were’. In the next example “both good operational policy and good public relation policy” is the predicate of the sentence.
Subordinate conjunctions
The third group is the subordinate conjunctions. These are words such as after, because, even if, since, and many others such as the ones on your screen.
When you use a subordinate conjunction, you create what is called a subordinate clause. In English, a subordinate clause must be joined to another sentence. Otherwise, it is known as a fragment and is considered to be bad grammar. That means that the part of the sentence after the comma in each case can be a sentence by itself. On your screen is an example with the subordinate conjunction ‘because’:
Conjunctive adverbs
The final group of words--the conjunctive adverbs--are very common in academic writing. These are words like however, in addition, nevertheless, hence, thus, and many others. Conjunctive adverbs are used to show more complex relationships between different ideas in your writing.
Conjunctive adverbs can be used at the start or in the middle of a sentence. Like coordinating conjunctions, conjunctive adverbs can also be used to join two independent clauses; however, when joining sentences, conjunctive adverbs must be used with a semi-colon.
This video has given you a short introduction to the three types of conjunctions and also to conjunctive adverbs. There are many other ways that we can link and make our writing cohesive. Below, you can find links to activities that will give you some practice using conjunctions and other linking words.
Finally, review the section on Paragraphing in the EnglishHELP Yourself Resources, where we will talk more about how conjunctions and linkers can be used in your writing to connect ideas and make your paragraphs read more naturally.