Definition
Some words are satisfied spending an evening at home, alone, eating
ice-cream right out of the box, watching
Seinfeld re-runs on TV, or
reading a good book. Others aren't happy unless they're out on the town, mixing
it up with other words; they're
joiners and they just can't help
themselves.
A conjunction is a joiner, a word that connects
(conjoins) parts of a sentence.
Coordinating
Conjunctions
The simple, little conjunctions are called
coordinating conjunctions
(you can click on the words to see specific descriptions of each one):
Coordinating Conjunctions
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(It may help you remember these conjunctions by recalling that they all have
fewer than four letters. Also, remember the acronym
FANBOYS:
For-
And-
Nor-
But-
Or-
Yet-
So.
Be careful of the words
then and
now; neither is a coordinating
conjunction, so what we say about coordinating conjunctions' roles in a
sentence and punctuation does not apply to those two words.)
When a coordinating conjunction connects two
independent
clauses, it is often (but not always) accompanied by a comma:
- Ulysses
wants to play for UConn, but he has had trouble meeting the
academic requirements.
When the two independent clauses connected by a coordinating
conjunction are nicely balanced or brief, many writers will omit the comma:
- Ulysses
has a great jump shot but he isn't quick on his feet.
A comma is also correct when and is used to attach the
last item of a serial list, although many writers (especially in newspapers)
will omit that final comma:
- Ulysses
spent his summer studying basic math, writing, and reading
comprehension.
When a coordinating conjunction is used to connect all the
elements in a series, a comma is not used:
- Presbyterians
and Methodists and Baptists are the prevalent Protestant
congregations in Oklahoma.
A comma is also used with but when expressing a
contrast:
- This is a
useful rule, but difficult to remember.
In most of their other roles as joiners (other than joining independent
clauses, that is), coordinating conjunctions can join two sentence elements
without the help of a comma.
- Hemingway
and Fitzgerald are among the American expatriates of the
between-the-wars era.
- Hemingway
was renowned for his clear style and his insights into American
notions of male identity.
- It is
hard to say whether Hemingway or Fitzgerald is the more interesting
cultural icon of his day.
- Although
Hemingway is sometimes disparaged for his unpleasant portrayal of women and
for his glorification of machismo, we nonetheless find some
sympathetic, even heroic, female figures in his novels and short
stories.
Beginning a
Sentence with And or But
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A frequently asked question about conjunctions is whether and
or but can be used at the beginning of a sentence. This is what R.W.
Burchfield has to say about this use of and:
There is a persistent belief that it is improper to begin
a sentence with And, but this prohibition has been cheerfully ignored
by standard authors from Anglo-Saxon times onwards. An initial And is
a useful aid to writers as the narrative continues.
from The New Fowler's Modern English Usage
edited by R.W. Burchfield. Clarendon Press: Oxford, England. 1996.
Used with the permission of Oxford University Press.
The same is true with the conjunction but. A
sentence beginning with and or but will tend to draw attention
to itself and its transitional function. Writers should examine such
sentences with two questions in mind: (1) would the sentence and paragraph
function just as well without the initial conjunction? (2) should the
sentence in question be connected to the previous sentence? If the initial
conjunction still seems appropriate, use it.
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Among the coordinating conjunctions, the most common, of course, are
and,
but, and
or. It might be helpful to explore the uses of these
three little words. The examples below by no means exhaust the possible
meanings of these conjunctions.
AND
- To suggest
that one idea is chronologically sequential to another: "Tashonda
sent in her applications and waited by the phone for a
response."
- To suggest
that one idea is the result of another: "Willie heard the weather
report and promptly boarded up his house."
- To suggest
that one idea is in contrast to another (frequently replaced by but
in this usage): "Juanita is brilliant and Shalimar has a
pleasant personality.
- To suggest
an element of surprise (sometimes replaced by yet in this usage):
"Hartford is a rich city and suffers from many symptoms of
urban blight."
- To suggest
that one clause is dependent upon another, conditionally (usually the
first clause is an imperative): "Use your credit cards frequently and
you'll soon find yourself deep in debt."
- To suggest
a kind of "comment" on the first clause: "Charlie became
addicted to gambling — and that surprised no one who knew
him."
- To suggest
a contrast that is unexpected in light of the first clause: "Joey
lost a fortune in the stock market, but he still seems able to live
quite comfortably."
- To suggest
in an affirmative sense what the first part of the sentence implied in a
negative way (sometimes replaced by on the contrary): "The
club never invested foolishly, but used the services of a sage
investment counselor."
- To connect
two ideas with the meaning of "with the exception of" (and then
the second word takes over as subject): "Everybody but
Goldenbreath is trying out for the team."
- To
suggest that only one possibility can be realized, excluding one or the
other: "You can study hard for this exam or you can
fail."
- To
suggest the inclusive combination of alternatives: "We can broil
chicken on the grill tonight, or we can just eat leftovers.
- To
suggest a refinement of the first clause: "Smith College is the
premier all-women's college in the country, or so it seems to most
Smith College alumnae."
- To
suggest a restatement or "correction" of the first part of the
sentence: "There are no rattlesnakes in this canyon, or so our
guide tells us."
- To
suggest a negative condition: "The New Hampshire state motto is the
rather grim "Live free or die."
- To
suggest a negative alternative without the use of an imperative (see use
of and above):
"They must approve his political style or they wouldn't keep
electing him mayor."
The conjunction
NOR is not
extinct, but it is not used nearly as often as the other conjunctions, so it
might feel a bit odd when
nor does come up in conversation or writing.
Its most common use is as the little brother in the correlative pair,
neither-nor
(see below):
- He is
neither sane nor brilliant.
- That is
neither what I said nor what I meant.
>It can be used with other negative expressions:
- That is
not what I meant to say, nor should you interpret my statement as
an admission of guilt.
It is possible to use nor without a preceding negative
element, but it is unusual and, to an extent, rather stuffy:
- George's
handshake is as good as any written contract, nor has he ever proven
untrustworthy.
The word
YET
functions sometimes as an adverb and has several meanings: in addition
("yet another cause of trouble" or "a simple yet noble
woman"), even ("yet more expensive"), still ("he is yet a
novice"), eventually ("they may yet win"), and so soon as now
("he's not here yet"). It also functions as a coordinating
conjunction meaning something like "nevertheless" or "but."
The word
yet seems to carry an element of distinctiveness that
but
can seldom register.
- John
plays basketball well, yet his favorite sport is badminton.
- The
visitors complained loudly about the heat, yet they continued to
play golf every day.
In sentences such as the second one, above, the pronoun
subject of the second clause ("they," in this case) is often left
out. When that happens, the comma preceding the conjunction might also
disappear: "The visitors complained loudly yet continued to play golf
every day."
Yet is sometimes combined with other conjunctions, but
or and. It would not be unusual to see and yet in sentences like
the ones above. This usage is acceptable.
The word
FOR
is most often used as a preposition, of course, but it does serve, on rare
occasions, as a coordinating conjunction. Some people regard the conjunction
for
as rather highfalutin and literary, and it does tend to add a bit of
weightiness to the text. Beginning a sentence with the conjunction
"for" is probably not a good idea, except when you're singing
"For he's a jolly good fellow. "For" has serious sequential
implications and in its use the order of thoughts is more important than it is,
say, with
because or
since. Its function is to introduce the
reason for the preceding clause:
- John
thought he had a good chance to get the job, for his father was on
the company's board of trustees.
- Most of
the visitors were happy just sitting around in the shade, for it
had been a long, dusty journey on the train.
Be careful of the conjunction
SO.
Sometimes it can connect two independent clauses along with a comma, but
sometimes it can't. For instance, in this sentence,
- Soto is
not the only Olympic athlete in his family, so are his brother, sister,
and his Uncle Chet.
where the word so means "as well" or
"in addition," most careful writers would use a semicolon between the
two independent clauses. In the following sentence, where so is acting
like a minor-league "therefore," the conjunction and the comma are
adequate to the task:
- Soto has
always been nervous in large gatherings, so it is no surprise that he
avoids crowds of his adoring fans.
Sometimes, at the beginning of a sentence, so will act
as a kind of summing up device or transition, and when it does, it is often set
off from the rest of the sentence with a comma:
- So, the
sheriff peremptorily removed the child from the custody of his parents.
The
Case of Then and Than
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 In
some parts of the United States, we are told, then and than not
only look alike, they sound alike. Like a teacher with twins in her
classroom, you need to be able to distinguish between these two words;
otherwise, they'll become mischievous. They are often used and they should be
used for the right purposes.
Than is used to make comparisons. In the sentence "Piggy would
rather be rescued then stay on the island," we have employed the
wrong word because a comparison is being made between Piggy's two choices; we
need than instead. In the sentence, "Other than Pincher
Martin, Golding did not write another popular novel," the adverbial
construction "other than" helps us make an implied comparison; this
usage is perfectly acceptable in the United States but careful writers in the
UK try to avoid it (Burchfield).
Generally, the only question about than arises when we have to
decide whether the word is being used as a conjunction or as a preposition.
If it's a preposition (and Merriam-Webster's dictionary provides for this
usage), then the word that follows it should be in the object form.
- He's
taller and somewhat more handsome than me.
- Just
because you look like him doesn't mean you can play better than him.
Most careful writers, however, will insist that than be
used as a conjunction; it's as if part of the clause introduced by than
has been left out:
- He's
taller and somewhat more handsome than I [am handsome].
- You
can play better than he [can play].
In formal, academic text, you should probably use than
as a conjunction and follow it with the subject form of a pronoun (where a
pronoun is appropriate).
Then is a conjunction, but it is not one of the little
conjunctions listed at the top of this page. We can use the FANBOYS
conjunctions to connect two independent clauses; usually, they will be
accompanied (preceded) by a comma. Too many students think that then
works the same way: "Caesar invaded Gaul, then he turned his attention
to England." You can tell the difference between then and a
coordinating conjunction by trying to move the word around in the sentence.
We can write "he then turned his attention to England"; "he
turned his attention, then, to England"; he turned his attention to
England then." The word can move around within the clause. Try that with
a conjunction, and you will quickly see that the conjunction cannot move
around. "Caesar invaded Gaul, and then he turned his attention to
England." The word and is stuck exactly there and cannot move
like then, which is more like an adverbial conjunction (or conjunctive
adverb — see below) than a coordinating conjunction. Our original sentence in
this paragraph — "Caesar invaded Gaul, then he turned his attention to
England" — is a comma
splice, a faulty sentence construction in which a comma tries to hold
together two independent clauses all by itself: the comma needs a
coordinating conjunction to help out, and the word then simply doesn't
work that way.
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Subordinating Conjunctions
A
Subordinating Conjunction (sometimes called a dependent word or
subordinator) comes at the beginning of a
Subordinate (or
Dependent) Clause and establishes the relationship between the
dependent clause and the rest of the sentence. It also turns the clause into
something that depends on the rest of the sentence for its meaning.
- He took
to the stage as though he had been preparing for this moment all
his life.
- Because
he loved acting, he refused to give up his dream of being in the movies.
- Unless
we act now, all is lost.
Notice that some of the subordinating conjunctions in the table below —
after, before, since — are also prepositions, but as subordinators they are
being used to introduce a clause and to subordinate the following clause to the
independent element in the sentence.
Common Subordinating Conjunctions
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after
although
as
as if
as long as
as though
because
before
even if
even though
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if
if only
in order that
now that
once
rather than
since
so that
than
that
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though
till
unless
until
when
whenever
where
whereas
wherever
while
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The
Case of Like and As
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Strictly speaking, the word like is a preposition, not
a conjunction. It can, therefore, be used to introduce a prepositional phrase
("My brother is tall like my father"), but it should not be
used to introduce a clause ("My brother can't play the piano like
as he did before the accident" or "It looks like as
if basketball is quickly overtaking baseball as America's national
sport."). To introduce a clause, it's a good idea to use as, as
though, or as if, instead.
Like
As I told you earlier, the lecture has been postponed.- It
looks
like as if it's going to snow this afternoon.
- Johnson
kept looking out the window
like as though he had someone waiting
for him.
In formal, academic text, it's a good idea to reserve the use
of like for situations in which similarities are being pointed out:
- This
community college is like a two-year liberal arts college.
However, when you are listing things that have similarities, such
as is probably more suitable:
- The
college has several highly regarded neighbors,
like such as the
Mark Twain House, St. Francis Hospital, the Connecticut Historical
Society, and the UConn Law School.
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Omitting That
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The word that is used as a conjunction to connect a
subordinate clause to a preceding verb. In this construction that is
sometimes called the "expletive that." Indeed, the word is
often omitted to good effect, but the very fact of easy omission causes some
editors to take out the red pen and strike out the conjunction that
wherever it appears. In the following sentences, we can happily omit the that
(or keep it, depending on how the sentence sounds to us):
- Isabel
knew [that] she was about to be fired.
- She
definitely felt [that] her fellow employees hadn't supported her.
- I
hope [that] she doesn't blame me.
Sometimes omitting the that creates a break in the flow
of a sentence, a break that can be adequately bridged with the use of a
comma:
- The
problem is,
that production in her department has dropped.
- Remember,
that we didn't have these problems before she started working
here.
As a general rule, if the sentence feels just as good without
the that, if no ambiguity results from its omission, if the sentence
is more efficient or elegant without it, then we can safely omit the that.
Theodore Bernstein lists three conditions in which we should maintain
the conjunction that:
- When
a time element intervenes between the verb and the clause: "The
boss said yesterday that production in this department was down
fifty percent." (Notice the position of "yesterday.")
- When
the verb of the clause is long delayed: "Our annual report revealed
that some losses sustained by this department in the third
quarter of last year were worse than previously thought." (Notice
the distance between the subject "losses" and its verb,
"were.")
- When
a second that can clear up who said or did what: "The CEO
said that Isabel's department was slacking off and that
production dropped precipitously in the fourth quarter." (Did the
CEO say that production dropped or was the drop a result of what he said
about Isabel's department? The second that makes the sentence
clear.)
Authority for this section: Dos,
Don'ts & Maybes of English Usage by Theodore Bernstein. Gramercy
Books: New York. 1999. p. 217. Examples our own.
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Beginning a
Sentence with Because
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Somehow, the notion that one should not begin a sentence with
the subordinating conjunction because retains a mysterious grip on
people's sense of writing proprieties. This might come about because a
sentence that begins with because could well end up a fragment if one
is not careful to follow up the "because clause" with an
independent clause.
- Because
e-mail now plays such a huge role in our communications industry.
When the "because clause" is properly subordinated
to another idea (regardless of the position of the clause in the sentence),
there is absolutely nothing wrong with it:
- Because
e-mail now plays such a huge role in our communications industry, the
postal service would very much like to see it taxed in some manner.
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Correlative
Conjunctions
Some conjunctions combine with other words to form what are called
correlative
conjunctions. They always travel in pairs, joining various sentence
elements that should be treated as grammatically equal.
- She led
the team not only in statistics but also by virtue of her
enthusiasm.
- Polonius
said, "Neither a borrower nor a lender be."
- Whether
you win this race or lose it doesn't matter as long as you do your
best.
Correlative conjunctions sometimes create problems in
parallel form. Click
HERE
for help with those problems. Here is a brief list of common correlative
conjunctions.
both . . . and
not only . . . but also
not . . . but
either . . . or
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neither . . . nor
whether . . . or
as . . . as
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Conjunctive Adverbs
The
conjunctive adverbs such as
however, moreover, nevertheless,
consequently, as a result are used to create complex relationships between
ideas. Refer to the section on
Coherence:
Transitions Between Ideas for an extensive list of conjunctive adverbs
categorized according to their various uses and for some advice on their
application within sentences (including punctuation issues).
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