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Grammar
Course: Grammar > Unit 5
Lesson 3: Introduction to conjunctionsCoordinating conjunctions
There are only seven coordinating conjunctions in English, and they are "for", "and", "nor", "but", "or", "yet", and "so", otherwise known as the FANBOYS conjunctions. Coordinating conjunctions (along with a comma) are the only conjunctions that can connect two independent clauses.
Want to join the conversation?
- Can someone help me out?
When do we put comma before the coordinating conjunctions?
Is it when you are connecting two independent clauses?(29 votes)- Hey RacheeLee,
When a coordinating conjunction joins two independent clauses, a comma is used before the coordinating conjunction (unless the two independent clauses are very short). Conjunctions that are not followed by non-essential elements should never be followed by commas.
hope it helps!(6 votes)
- Is
so
only used for showing consequences?(17 votes)- It aslo can be used as beginning a sentence, such as when you are walking with your friends on the street. You can say:" So, are we going to the coffee shop?"(4 votes)
- What is the difference between subordinating and coordinating conjunctions, and can there be both in a single sentence?(11 votes)
- Coordinating conjunctions connect two independent clauses, subordinating conjunctions connect an independent and a dependent clause. You can have both in a compound-complex sentence:
I like playing basketball and I like baseball, because I can do it with friends.
has both a coordinating conjunction (and) and a subordinating conjunction (because).(8 votes)
- I am still not really sure about nor can someone help explain more?(3 votes)
- Okay let's see if I can be any more helpful.
Nor basically is a way to negate both of two options. It usually is paired with "neither."
So for example, you could say, "I want neither cake nor death" or "I neither did my homework nor fed the dog."
Basically, when you're saying that you have two options and you are denying both of them, you would use nor. It doesn't come up much in everyday conversation though, because it sounds so formal.
So I hope this helped at least a little.(12 votes)
- The conjunction "for" seems to be contaminated with the idea of "since", a subordinating conjunction.(7 votes)
- What does contrary mean? Please answer the question by commenting!(4 votes)
- "Contrary to popular belief, that's actually not true." It just means the something conflicting or opposite. So in other words you could say, "It's actually not true, different from what most people believe."
A "contrarian" is someone who likes to take the unpopular or uncommon opinion a lot. They usually like to argue!(5 votes)
- do you use commas every time you use a cord. conjunction?(3 votes)
- You should use a comma before a coordinating conjunction (such as and, but, or, nor, etc.) when it joins two independent clauses (word groups that can function as complete sentences). For example:
I like apples, but I don’t like oranges.
She studied hard, so she aced the test.
However, you do not need a comma before coordinating a conjunction if it joins two words or phrases that are not independent clauses. For example:
He likes peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
She is smart but lazy.(4 votes)
- waitaminute! can consequence be a good thing? like "Jack cleaned the house, so he played on the switch"
it's showing a good thing there, see? is consequence just "result of something happening?"(3 votes)- Mysto,
Not really. Consequences basically always tend to be a bad afterward result. Example:
"If you don't do your homework, there will be consequences."
Do you need more help?(4 votes)
- he said butt hahahahahahahaha(4 votes)
- I cant understand this sentence "Cake or Death"(2 votes)
- "Cake or Death" is not a complete sentence. It is an abbreviation of "Give me cake, or give me death." Does that help?(5 votes)
Video transcript
- [Voiceover] Hello grammarians. Alright, today I want to start
talking about conjunctions, and conjunctions are
this part of speech that has a very particular function
in English and what it does conjunctions unite words,
phrases, and clauses. Let me, let me show you an example. So if you want to talk about two things, you could say it's a
peanut butter and jelly. Or if I were going to
paraphrase Eddie Izzard, I might offer you the
choice of cake or death. You could also describe
something as being sad but true. And these three are the most
commonly used conjunctions because I would be remiss
if I didn't mention the seminal conjunction song that got me into the grammar game in the first
place, Conjunction Junction, which I think was written by Jack Sheldon or performed by Jack
Sheldon in like, 1973. Schoolhouse Rock. It's great. Look it up. But what I'm going to talk about today is a mnemonic, or a memory
aide, called FANBOYS. You may have heard this before, FANBOYS. And this is how we remember
the coordinating conjunctions. And you don't need to worry about the name coordinating conjunctions,
we'll get to that later. For now, just remember FANBOYS. For, And, Nor, But, Or,
Yet, and So. FANBOYS. We'll go through how each
one of these are used over the next screen.
Follow me downstairs! So we've got For, And,
Nor, But, Or, Yet, and So, and each of them have a
different basic function. So let's, let's review them. For has this connotation. You can use it the way you'd use a word like since or because, as in... I do not eat buttons,
for they are not food. You can see I'm combining
these two little sentences using the word for. We're using this for to
explain my reasoning. I do not eat buttons
because they are not food, and for is a simpler way to express that. The conjunction and? Very
elemental, very important conjunction combines one
thing with another as in... The kangaroo robbed the
bank and torched the saloon. A rather criminal kangaroo. And you can see we're using
and to combine these two ideas. We're saying, this thing happened,
this thing also happened, they happened together. Nor is similar to and, but we use it to combine untrue things. We use it to express negation. So if I were going to talk
about an angry tree spirit, for example, just to pull
an example out of a hat, I could say, she won't leave her tree, nor
will she speak with humans. We use but to express exceptions, as in... We used every building
material but chewing gum. Chewing gum is the exception
to every building material. We or as a conjunction to
choose between options... As in, would you rather have a pet bear or a pet giraffe? We ask the hard questions on Khan Academy. Yet is kind of like but, except that we use it to
express unexpected things so I'm just going to
write, to the contrary! As if I were Sherlock Holmes
hollering at a confused Watson. And to the contrary, my good man Watson! This is how we use yet. I'll show you. I want to leave, yet I cannot. So it sets up this kind of push and pull dynamic in a sentence, is what yet does. We set the expectation, I want to leave, and yet here's the unexpected,
what I'd say an ironic part, yet I cannot. I want to leave... But unfortunately, or but unexpectedly. When you would say but
unexpectedly, just use yet. And finally, the last part of FANBOYS, so shows consequences. Dougal was allergic to sheep, so he skipped the wool festival. Right so, so we're trying to set up that as a consequence of the first clause, Dougal being allergic to sheep, the thing that follows
is, because of that, he decided to skip the wool festival. This is FANBOYS, For, And,
Nor, But, Or, Yet, So. These are all covered in the exercises. You can learn anything. David out.