Conjunctions

What are conjunctions?
Conjunctions connect.  They help us to create and understand the connections or relationships between words and groups of words in sentences.

Here is a list of common conjunctions called coordinating conjunctions:
for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so ( FANBOYS)

What types of relationships and connections do conjunctions create?

• "And" shows words that we usually use together and words that play the same part in the sentence.  Ex: peanut butter and jelly, milk and cookies.

Bill and Larry are coming home tomorrow. ( “Bill” and “Larry” are both nouns playing a compound subject.) Susan ate and drank all day.  (“Ate” and “drank” are verbs.)

• "But" signals a change in what was expected to happen. It also creates statements that are the opposite of each other or statements that give us two different ideas to think about.  “But” also shows us how one idea or thing or person is different from the other. “But” creates relationships of contrast.

Example: He fell down the stairs, but he did not break his arm.

• "So" shows how one thing leads to another or how one thing causes another to happen. “So” creates cause and effect relationships.

Example: He was hungry, so he ate the entire meal.