Conjunctions in English Grammar: Types, Rules and Examples

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What Are Conjunctions in English Grammar?

The word "conjunction" comes from "junction" — the place where a train or road connects one city to another. Conjunctions do the same job in a sentence: they connect one sentence, phrase, or word to another, which is why they are also called connectors or joining words.

A conjunction works like a bridge, linking point A to point B in a sentence. Grammatically, conjunctions are words used to join words, phrases, clauses, and sentences to form a new sentence with a new meaning.

Take this example: "Please give me some juice and toast to eat." Here, "and" connects two separate ideas — juice and toast — into one sentence. In "He goes to the library a lot because he loves to read books," the word "because" links the two clauses together. Both "and" and "because" are conjunctions doing the same basic job: joining.

The Three Types of Conjunctions

Conjunctions can be categorised into three types:

1. Coordinating conjunctions — the simplest type, joining words or clauses of equal rank.
2. Correlative conjunctions — pairs of words that join two equally weighted ideas.
3. Subordinating conjunctions — words that connect a less important, dependent clause to a main clause.

Each type follows a different rule for how the two connected parts relate to each other. The sections below cover all three in detail, along with the specific words that belong to each category.

Coordinating Conjunctions and the FANBOYS Rule

"Coordinate" means to come together or join as equals. Coordinating conjunctions are used to join two or more words, phrases, or clauses of equal rank — meaning both sides give equal or similar sense. For example, "Sita and Rahul are classmates" works because both Sita and Rahul share the same status: they're both classmates.

There are seven coordinating conjunctions, remembered using the acronym FANBOYS: For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So.

💡 Grammar Tip: "Nor" is already a negative word, so a sentence using "nor" should never also use "not" in the second part. Write "He doesn't eat cake, nor does he eat biscuits" — not "He doesn't eat cake, nor doesn't he eat biscuits."

A few of these deserve a closer look. But is used specifically when the second statement gives a contrary reason or answer to the first — for instance, "You can eat pizza, but you have to score good marks in your test." So is used to express an outcome or consequence: "Everyone was busy with work, so I brought all the items myself." Yet expresses a contradictory or unexpected idea against something already stated: "He cannot see properly, yet he reads a book every day."

Correlative Conjunctions

Unlike coordinating conjunctions, which use a single word at a time, correlative conjunctions are pairs of words used together to connect two ideas, words, phrases, or clauses that carry equal sense or meaning. For example, "The company produces both shampoo and bath soaps" — shampoo and bath soaps represent the same kind of idea, so "both...and" connects them.

Notice that "both" is always paired with "and" — this pairing never changes. "Neither...nor" is the negative counterpart of "either...or," used when both parts of the sentence need to carry a negative sense, as in "She is neither rich nor generous."

Subordinating Conjunctions

"Subordinating" means less important, or dependent. A subordinating conjunction joins a subordinate (dependent) clause to a main (independent) clause.

Consider "Because I was ill" on its own — it doesn't give a complete sense; the reader is left waiting for more information. Add an independent clause: "I stayed at home because I was ill," and now the sentence is complete. "I stayed at home" is the independent clause carrying complete meaning on its own, while "because I was ill" is the dependent clause that relies on it.

The transcript covers fourteen subordinating conjunctions:

💡 Grammar Tip: "Till" is used in a positive sense, while "until" is used in a negative sense — both roughly mean "up to the time that." "As" means "just as" or "as soon as," and it's used to show time, cause, or reason together in one clause.

💡 Punctuation Tip: When "before" starts a sentence, put a comma between the two clauses. When "before" appears in the middle of the sentence, no comma is needed — as in "I brush my teeth before I sleep."