Free Grammar Help

Custom Search

Grammar Help—Words—Conjunctions

Conjunctions

A conjuction is a word used to connect words, phrases and clauses. Common conjunctions are “and,” “but,” “or,” nor,” “for,” etc. These are called coordinating conjunctions and they join phrases of equal grammatical value.

Here are some examples:

I went to the store and I bought some Lady Gaga CDs.

I went to the gas station, but I didn’t buy gas.

I went to the bank for cash.

Subordinating conjunctions such as “after,” “as,” “because,” “if,” etc join clauses of different grammatical value.

Here are some examples:

I went to the bank after I went to the store.

I went to the bank because I needed to deposit my pay.

What do I mean by “grammatical value”? You see that in the first case each side of the conjunction could stand as an independent sentence. But for the subordinating conjunctions, there is a logical relationship between the two phrases that makes it important to link the two.

Correlative conjunctions always occur in pairs. These include either/or; not only/but also; and whether/or.