Conjunctions
Objectives of today’s lesson:
In this lesson, Learn English with Julia presents to you “Conjunctions”, in order to:
- go through a list of conjunctions examples
- complete some conjunctions exercises
- understand the different types of conjunctions
- be able to come up with at least 10 examples of conjunction in a sentence
Video Script:
Hello and welcome in this video dedicated to conjunctions.
What is a conjunction, and when do we use it?
A conjunction is a word that helps to connect clauses. It helps make longer and more complex sentences.
A conjunction also helps to connect groups of words or words in a sentence, so it connects.
But it is also used to define the relationship between words or clauses.
This is what allows us to have a text that flows. So it makes our text or speech flow.
These are the reasons why we use conjunctions. Here is what they are for.
Conjunctions can take three forms: They can be coordinating, subordinating, or correlative.
#1 So coordinating conjunctions: there is a good way of memorising them. If you memorise the first letter of each of these words it becomes an acronym: FAN BOYS. That way you have the 7 main coordinating conjunctions: FOR, AND, NOR, BUT, OR, YET, SOON
What do these conjunctions do? They help us to link two equally important clauses.
So two clauses, two sentences that work very well without each other. So they are two main or two independent clauses
and we’re just simply adding a word between them.
#2 Then, subordinating conjunctions are different because they establish a different kind of relationship between the two clauses.
You must have a main sentence that is grammatically independent. And you can join the main clause or independent clause, a dependent clause. Something that would not work alone grammatically. And you can do this by introducing a subordinating conjunction just before the dependent clause: BECAUSE, ONCE, SINCE, ALTHOUGH… We will go back to this at the end, with examples.
#3 Number 3: Correlative conjunctions: both… and, either… or, just as… so
As you can see they are pairs of conjunctions. This is a key difference and the second major difference is they help us link words within a sentence. They do not link or connect clauses to create a new sentence. They will work within a sentence.
We saw all three types. Now we will illustrate each type of conjunction with an example. And then I recommend you read the text below in this lesson to fully understand this grammar point ( “www.yourenglishhub.com”)
#1 Coordinating two clauses, how do we do that? We will use one of these, maybe “AND”.
Jack enters the bar. He orders a beer.
It’s a bit staggered. We want our text to flow.
Jack enters the bar and orders a beer.
You see, it flows. It doesn’t really establish a relationship between the two clauses. It just shows that they are important and that they are in the same sentence.
#2 The second type: subordinating conjunctions. There is a dependency relationship there How are we going to do that?
We will have a main clause. For example: Jack loved that bar. This is a main clause, an independent clause.
And we will give reasons, so we’ll add a dependent clause to that. … because he had been going there all his life.
So the first clause may work alone (Jack loved that bar.) whereas “… because he had been going there all his life.” ‘can not work alone.
#3 We need the main clause for it to make sense. We can say, for example:
He liked both dessert and savoury food. He liked both sweet and savoury food. Completely random examples, as usual.
I count on you to read the text, for more illustrations of this point.
That’s it for today.
Thanks for watching!
Grammar Quiz:
Keywords listed in English:
- coordinating conjunctions
- subordinating conjunctions
- correlative conjunctions
- connecting clauses
