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Coordinating 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.

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  • duskpin ultimate style avatar for user RacheLee
    Can someone help me out?
    When do we put comma before the coordinating conjunctions?
    Is it when you are connecting two independent clauses?
    (33 votes)
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    • duskpin ultimate style avatar for user Enderman
      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!
      (8 votes)
  • boggle yellow style avatar for user vi
    Is so only used for showing consequences?
    (18 votes)
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  • purple pi teal style avatar for user Matt Kroeker
    What is the difference between subordinating and coordinating conjunctions, and can there be both in a single sentence?
    (9 votes)
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    • hopper cool style avatar for user Madeliv
      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).
      (10 votes)
  • aqualine seed style avatar for user Logan;
    I hear the word conjunction and I think "conjunction junction what's your function" 🤣
    (11 votes)
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  • duskpin ultimate style avatar for user Ayesha
    Cake or death?! Sad life for cake haters.
    (10 votes)
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  • duskpin ultimate style avatar for user Amber
    I am still not really sure about nor can someone help explain more?
    (3 votes)
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    • mr pants purple style avatar for user Olivia  **INACTIVE**
      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)
  • duskpin ultimate style avatar for user amkhan
    I love how David is a voice actor, artist, comedian, and a really good teacher at the same time! How can someone be so talented?
    (8 votes)
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  • scuttlebug yellow style avatar for user wchen0662
    do you use commas every time you use a cord. conjunction?
    (4 votes)
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    • duskpin ultimate style avatar for user Dua
      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.
      (8 votes)
  • marcimus purple style avatar for user Isheeta Pal
    What does contrary mean? Please answer the question by commenting!
    (5 votes)
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    • leaf orange style avatar for user Benny C
      "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!
      (4 votes)
  • leaf green style avatar for user Yonatan (Yoni) Gilburt
    The conjunction "for" seems to be contaminated with the idea of "since", a subordinating conjunction.
    (6 votes)
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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.