On conjunctions

A conjunction joins words in a sentence. There are three types of conjunctions.

Co-ordinating conjunctions are but, or, yet, so, for, and, nor. You can remember them with the acronym boysfan.

Correlative conjunctions come in a pair. They cannot stand alone. Examples are both/and, either/or, neither/nor, not only/also.

Subordinating conjunctions are used at the beginning of dependent clauses. A dependent clause is a group of words that has a subject and verb but cannot stand on its own.

After I brushed my teeth, I went to bed.

"After I brushed my teeth" is a dependent clause. "After" is a subordinating conjunction.

Please keep still so that I can cut your toenails!

"so that I can cut your toenails" is a dependent clause; "so that" is a subordinating conjunction.

And with this, we come to the end of the parts of speech. The next series will deal with sentence structure.

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