The Eight Parts of Speech: Conjunctions

      Conjunctions are words that connect phrases, clauses, or indicated their relationship toward one another. There are four different types of conjunctions will help you understand sentence schema.

A. Coordinating Conjunctions

 

You can think of these as the great equalizers. The words and, but, or, nor, for, so, and yet connect grammatically equal elements. Here's another way to look at it. What's the difference between saying, “Bob went to school and began looking for his arithmetic book,” or saying, “Bob went to school, after looking for his book”? The prior treats both events as equals. The latter treats them unequally because it is introducing a subordinate.

B. Correlating Conjunctions
 

These conjunctions function the same way as coordinating conjunctions, however they must be used in pairs. Here are some examples: either....or, both...and, neither...nor, not only...but also, whether...or

I'll provide some written examples:
1) Either Bob will go outside and be nice or he will be sent to his room for the day.
2) Andy wants both the red lollypop and bob's one-hundred dollar bill.
3) Annie the newborn Centaur wants neither to be touched nor to be given gross baby food.
4) Not only did Mike forget to run to the store, but also when he went to the beach he left the sprinklers on.
5) “Whether you're a world-class grammarian or a run of the mill writer, your mother will always love you.”

C. Subordinate Conjunctions
 

Every sentence may contain a subordinate clause. These clauses act as adverb, preposition, or adjective phrases which further qualify the referred object. However, these conjunctions are not stand alone sentences. Here are some words that introduce subordinate conjunctions

After, Although, As, As if, Because, Before, Even though, How, If, In order that, Once, Rather than, Since, So that, Than, That, Once, Rather than, Since, So that, Though, Unless, Until, When, Where, Whether, While, Why.

D. Conjunctive Adverbs

Referencing our article on Adverbs we can remember that Adverbs “ad to verbs”. So we can assume that a conjunctive adverbs are conjunctions which “ad to verbs”. Consequently, that's the role of conjunctive adverbs – they are transitions between two independent clauses. Listed below are a few examples:
 

Consequently, Finally, Furthermore, However, Moreover, Nevertheless, Similarly, Then, Therefore, Thus

Remember, learning to distinguish between conjunctive adverbs and coordinating conjunctions will help prevent run-on sentences and aid punctuation.