Basic Coordinating Conjunctions |
A coordinating conjunction is a word which joins together two clauses which are both equally important. This page will explain the most common coordinating conjunctions and how to use them.
What is a clause?A clause is a unit which contains a subject and a verb. For example, "It was raining" is a clause; the subject is "it", and the verb is "was raining". Every sentence MUST contain at least one clause, but it may contain more than one. For example:
This sentence contains two clauses, "It was raining" and "I took my umbrella". They are independent clauses because each one would be a good sentence on its own -- each one is a "complete thought".
Joining clauses together with conjunctionsExamine the example sentence one more time:
The two clauses in the sentence are joined together with the word "so". This is a coordinating conjunction. It is used to join two independent clauses which are equally important. A coordinating conjunction usually comes in the middle of a sentence, and it usually follows a comma (unless both clauses are very short). These are the most important coordinating conjunctions: These conjunctions are also used:
Using coordinating conjunctionsThere are three things to remember when using coordinating conjunctions:
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