Parts of speech: Conjunctions

Conjunctions join words, phrases, or clauses, and they indicate the relation between the elements joined.

Coordinating conjunctions

and, but, or, nor, for, so, yet

A coordinating conjunction is used to connect grammatically equal elements.

Correlative conjunctions

either . . . or

neither . . . nor

not only . . . but also

whether . . . or

both . . . and

Correlative conjunctions are pairs of conjunctions that connect grammatically equal elements.

Subordinating conjunctions

A subordinating conjunction introduces a subordinate clause and indicates its relation to the rest of the sentence.

Subordinating conjunctions

Conjunctive adverbs

A conjunctive adverb is used to indicate the relation between independent clauses.

Conjunctive adverbs

NOTE:The ability to distinguish between conjunctive adverbs and coordinating conjunctions will help you avoid run-on sentences and use commas and semicolons correctly. The ability to recognize subordinating conjunctions will help you avoid sentence fragments.

Exercises:

All parts of speech 1

All parts of speech 2

Related topics:

Coordination (sentence emphasis)

Parallelism

Run-on sentences

Sentence fragments

Commas and conjunctive adverbs

Semicolons and conjunctive adverbs