A conjunction is a word that holds a series of talks, clauses, or phrases together. There are three types: coordinating conjunctions, subordinating conjunctions, and correlative conjunctions.
As your child goes through school, they’ll need to understand and form a range of sentence constructions using the different conjunctions to make their writing more interesting and develop their grammar knowledge.
What are examples of coordinating conjunctions?
There are seven coordinating conjunctions: for, and, nor, yet, but, so, and or.
They’re used to join simple sentences into compound sentences.
A compound sentence is when a connective or coordinating conjunction joins two main clauses. The main clause is something that makes sense on its own.
For example:
- Samira likes football, and Ben likes basketball.
In this example, both ‘Samira likes football’ and ‘Ben likes football’ are main clauses because they make sense on their own; ‘and’ is the co-ordinating conjunction because it joins the two main clauses
- Ben works hard, but he finds spelling difficult.
- The sun was hot, so the children put suncream on.
What are examples of subordinating conjunctions?
Subordinating conjunctions are: if, since, when, although, while, after, before, until, because, and as. These introduce a subordinate clause in a sentence, which is followed or preceded by the main clause.
A subordinate clause doesn’t make sense on its own.
For example:
- Before they left the house, they ate a huge dinner.
Here, ‘before’ is the subordinating conjunction that introduces the subordinate clause.
- They played happily downstairs until it was time for bed.
In this case, ‘until’ is the subordinating conjunction, which presents the subordinate clause.
What are examples of correlative conjunctions?
Correlative conjunctions include pairs such as ‘both/and,’ ‘not/but,’ ‘either/or,’ ‘neither/nor,’ and ‘not only/but.’
Both of them need to appear in the sentence. In addition, sentences with correlative conjunction must be balanced, meaning the words that follow them must be in the same category.
For example:
- She loved to play both tennis and cricket.
In this sentence, ‘tennis’ and ‘cricket’ are nouns. ‘Both’ and ‘and’ are correlative conjunctions.
- Not only did he excel at maths, but he also shone in English.
In this example, ‘excel’ and ‘shone’ are both verbs. ‘Not only’ and ‘also’ are correlative conjunctions.
- They found the meal at the new restaurant neither tasty nor cheap.
Here, ‘tasty’ and ‘cheap’ describe words or adjectives. ‘Neither’ and ‘nor’ are correlative conjunctions.
