CONJUNCTIONS
Conjunctions are the words used to join two words or two sentences. They join them meaningfully.
Look at the following sentences:
1. Praveen and Pradeep are good players.
2. He is rich but he is honest.
3. She must weep or she will die.
In sentence 1, the word “and” joins two words(Nouns), Praveen and Pradeep. “but” in sentence 2 joins two sentences. The word “or” joins the two sentences. Conjunctions can be divided into two types- Coordinating conjunctions and Subordinating conjunctions.
Coordinating conjunctions like and, but, or, either ... or, neither... nor etc,. join two or more main clauses (sentences) whereas the clauses with subordinating clauses beginning with because, after, before, though etc,. are dependent clauses which depend on the main clauses.
Now look at some sentences:
4. Ashwitha read a book which was very interesting.
5. Shivani scored good marks because she studied well.
6. Mahesh was absent because he was not well.
7. The government announced holidays for schools so students stayed at home.
8. She will go home if the bell rings.
In sentence 4, the conjunction which cannot be separated from she studied well. The whole clause is because she studied well. However, in sentence 7 so is not attached to any clause/sentence. It coordinates two sentences. The conjunctions which, because, if are subordinating because those sentences become subordinate. As we know practice makes man perfect. Click the following link to do some exercises on Simple/Compound/Complex Sentence.
Click the link below to do an online test on conjunctions:
Learn more from Conjunctions - Usage.
ConversionConversion EmoticonEmoticon