ESL Library

Conjunctions

What are conjunctions in English?

Conjunctions are words that join two or more other words, phrases, or clauses together.

For example, in the sentence "She likes apples and oranges,"

"and" is a conjunction that joins the words "apples" and "oranges" together.

There are four common coordinating conjunctions in English that we use for different functions.

We use "and" for addition, "but" for opposition, "or" for a choice, and "so" for a result.

There are three common sentence patterns for conjunctions in English.

The first pattern is: word plus conjunction plus word.

An example of this pattern is: He likes cats and dogs.

The conjunction "and" joins the words "cats" and "dogs."

Note that the words that a conjunction joins must be the same part of speech.

For example, conjunctions can join two or more nouns, verbs, adjectives, or adverbs.

In the sentence "He likes cats and dogs," "cats" and "dogs" are both nouns

that are joined by the conjunction "and."

In the sentence "I usually study, read, or exercise after dinner,"

"study," "read," and "exercise" are verbs that are joined by the conjunction "or."

Note that we use commas for more than two items in a list.

The second pattern is phrase plus conjunction plus phrase.

A phrase contains two or more words, such as a preposition and a noun.

An example of this pattern is: I jogged down the street and up the hill.

The conjunction "and" joins the phrases "down the street" and "up the hill,"

which are both phrases containing a preposition, an article, and a noun.

The third pattern is clause plus conjunction plus clause.

A clause contains a subject and a verb.

An example of this pattern is: They went out for dinner, but they didn't order any dessert.

The conjunction "but" joins the clauses "they went out for dinner"

and "they didn't order any dessert."

Note that we often use a comma before the conjunction when it joins two clauses.

Let’s look at some more examples of conjunctions in sentences and questions.

Our new house is yellow and white.

He doesn't like baseball, basketball, or tennis.

She has a lot of books but no time to read them.

I finished my homework, so I'm going to the party.

Do you want to go to the movies tonight, or should we watch TV at home?

Look at the conjunction choices.

Say or write the correct conjunction for each sentence or question.

For example: