Conjunctions and its uses in English

In English language, the conjunctions functions as a “connector”. Thus it is defined as the part of speech that connects words, clauses, phrases and sentences to complete their meaning.

Conjunctions are divided into three categories Coordinating, Subordinating and Correlative.

1) Coordinating Conjunctions: These conjunctions join two statements of equal importance. 

The seven common coordinating conjunctions are: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so and can be memorized in their abbreviated form as F.A.N.B.O.Y.S (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so).

2) Subordinating Conjunctions: These conjunctions join two sentences, one of which depends on other for its complete meaning. They are helpful in writing paragraphs.

The most common examples of subordinating conjunctions are although, as, because, before, if, since, so, so that, than, though, unless, until, when, whenever, whereas, while etc.

3) Correlative Conjunctions: These are the pair of conjunctions used to join two syntactic equivalent statements, to complete their meanings.

The examples of correlative conjunctions are mentioned below.

• either , or

• neither, nor

• whether, or

• not only, but

• just as, so

• both, and