Conjunctions

Linguistic Overview

Conjunctions are a closed lexical class, meaning there are a limited number of conjunctions in the English dictionary, and we don’t add new conjunctions over time. There is a fair amount of overlap between conjunctions and adpositions: they are both classes of linkers, and their catalogs even have some specific terms in common.

Conjunctions connect grammatical elements of the same type. The linked elements are called constituents.

Coordinating Conjunctions come between elements of equal weight, whether those elements are entire clauses or are subclausal words or phrases. Some coordinators can link more than two constituents together in a list.
Subordinating Conjunctions come at the beginning of one clause in order to embed it inside another.

Many conjunctions are single words. However, some are multi-word phrases, such as ‘by the time’ or ‘in order that’. Furthermore, some conjunctions are Correlative Conjunctions, in which a simple conjunction is partnered with an adverb (or possibly a determiner), and each introduces one of the two constituents (for example, “I would rather drink coffee than drink tea.”). Some Correlative Conjunctions are coordinators, while others are subordinators, but almost all of them connect precisely 2 constituents.

Coordinating Conjunctions

Coordinating Conjunctions, or simply Coordinators, link together constituents that are on par with one another, meaning they are of equal grammatical importance.

Though conjunctions are primarily functional, they do carry some meaning. Coordinators can have a cumulative, alternative, adversative, successive, or illative meaning.

Cumulative Coordinators express constituents co-existing without conflict; the elements are sometimes grouped together and treated as one unit with the sum of all their properties. Sometimes the adverbs ‘too’, ‘also’, or ‘as well’ follow the final constituent.
- ‘and₁ (also)’ | ‘both … and’ | ‘as well as’ | ‘not only … but also’ | ‘plus’
- ‘not/neither/never/etc. … nor’

Alternative Coordinators express multiple possible constituents, with only one existing at a time; the constituents remain distinct from one another.
- ‘or₁ (else) | ‘either … or’ | ‘whether … or’

Adversative Coordinators express multiple constituents in conflict with one another; for simple adversatives, both constituents may exist simultaneously; for correlative adversatives, typically only the one of the constituents emerges as true or preferrable.
- ‘but’ | ‘not …, but/just/only’ | ‘yet’
Successive Coordinators express that one constituent follows another in a sequence.
- ‘then’ | ‘first … then’ | ‘and’₂
Illative Coordinators express a cause-and-effect relationship between the two constituents, whether that is a natural result or an imposed consequence.
- ‘so’ | ‘for’ | ‘or’₂

For cumulative, alternative, and simple adversative coordinators, the order of constituents can be swapped without altering the meaning very much, if at all. But for successive, illative, and correlative adversative coordinators, changing the order of the constituents would alter the overall meaning of that phrase.

Some coordinators link clauses together into compound sentences. Some coordinators link sub-clausal elements (words or phrases) together. Universal Coordinators can do both, and they can even be used to link more than two constituents together in a list.

The Universal Coordinators are ‘but’, ‘or’, ‘then’, ‘and’, ‘nor’, and ‘yet’, which can be remembered through the mnemonic acronym BOTANY.

A more popular acronym is FANBOYS, though the list it represents is flawed. See the Advanced Concepts section for an assessment.

Clausal Coordinators

Clausal Coordinators link two main clauses together to form a compound sentence. Importantly, both of the clauses need to be able to function and be semantically complete independent of one another. Unlike with subordinators, Clausal Coordinators are not a part of either clause but instead come between the two clauses.

For example:

“Hannah couldn’t sleep last night, so she started knitting at 12:30am.”
“Either go buy some cereal, or stop complaining that we don’t have any.”

In addition to the Universal Coordinator ‘and’, ‘or’, or ‘but’, we can include the adverbial ‘both’, ‘either’, or ‘not just/only’ (respectively) somewhere in the first clause to form a correlative conjunction. Other Clausal Coordinators include ‘for’, ‘neither’, ‘plus’, and ‘so’.

There should be a comma after the first clause and before the conjunction for compound sentences.

Instead of linking two clauses within the same sentence, Clausal Coordinators can semantically link two clauses together while they are in separate (but adjacent) sentences. By putting these conjunctions at the very start of the second sentence, we can draw a connection between the following clause and the sentiment expressed in the previous sentence. Unlike with Conjunctive Adverbs, we do not use commas after Clausal Coordinators that come at the beginning of sentences (unless the speaker chooses to emphasize the conjunction).

As a coordinating conjunction, ‘so’ means ‘therefore’; the latter constituent is either a natural consequence or a decision made after the former constituent. When ‘so’ instead means ‘in order that’ (and the latter constituent is decided before the former constituent and is even the initial reason for the former constituent), then it is a subordinating conjunction.

Subclausal Coordinators

Subclausal coordinators can link together elements of virtually any type of part of speech, whether those constituents are individual words or are phrases. For example:

linking nominals: “Neither Osla nor I have attended college.”
linking verbs: “The competitors shall swim, bike, then run toward the finish line.”
linking modifiers: “The elderly yet spry woman ascended the stairs without difficulty.”
linking determiners: “Suddenly, Scarlet was surrounded by four or five wolves.”
linking adpositions: “Treasures are hidden beneath as well as inside the monuments.”

Linked constituents should belong to the same broader category of parts-of-speech, even if they differ in their lexical class. For example: when linking two nominals, one might be a noun while the other is a pronoun; when linking modifiers, one might be an adjective while another is a prepositional phrase.

Apart from the Universal Coordinators, ‘as well as’, ‘just’, and ‘only’ can be Subclausal Coordinators. Correlative Subclausal Coordinators include: ‘both … and’ | ‘either … or’ | ‘whether … or’ | ‘not only/just … but also’ | ‘neither … nor’ | ‘not … , but/just/only’.

When there are only two subclausal constituents, we typically don’t include any punctuation between them.

Lists

Lists of three or more constituents can be linked with ‘and’, ‘or’, or possibly ‘nor’ placed just before the final constituent. ‘Then’ can also be used this way, but it works best when the constituents are verbs or predicates. A comma (or possibly semicolon for larger phrases or proper nouns that include commas) is typically used to separate each constituent. These are called polysyndetic lists.

eg: “Many English-dominant nations have red, white, and blue flags.”
eg: “European heraldry might include a dragon, eagle, lion, or unicorn on their crest.”

Less commonly, we can link multiple constituents with a conjunction between each. It does not need to be the same conjunction each time, and the final conjunction can be any of the Universal Coordinators, but a comma is usually used when the conjunction changes. This is often a clunky way of communicating, but it can be used effectively for emphasis. We call these parasyndetic lists.

eg: “I bought milk and eggs and bread, just like you requested.”
eg: “The dish was creamy and sweet, yet surprisingly sour.

Specialized Coordinators

Range

The terms ‘to’, ‘through’/’thru’ and ’till’/’until’, while normally prepositions, act as conjunctions when they are set between words or phrases of the same type, and when they communicate the range between the two constituents. They are exclusively used for quantities, time frames, and modifiers of extent.

eg: “Fifty to sixty people were at that party.”
eg: “The store is open Tuesday through Saturday.”
eg: “We searched high to low, but couldn’t find your keys anywhere.”

The correlative conjunctions for range are ‘from … to/till’ and ‘between … and’.

Comparison

Some conjunctions work exclusively for the purposes of comparing and contrasting, including:

‘more/less … than’ ← possible constituents: noun phrases or modifiers
‘not so much … as’ ← possible constituents: noun phrases or modifiers
‘rather … than’ ← possible constituents: verbs or predicates

These are distinct from other coordinators in how restrictive their applications are, only working for certain parts of speech.

Subordinating Conjunctions

Unlike Coordinators, Subordinating Conjunctions can’t be used with just any part of speech or role within a sentence. Instead, Subordinators only link embedded clauses to their host clauses. Furthermore, while Coordinators come between the elements they’re linking, Subordinators come at the start of their embedded clauses.

The list of Subordinators and specifics about their roles depends on whether they introduce Adverbial Clauses, Relative Clauses, or Content Clauses.

Adverbial Subordinators

Adverbial Subordinators are similar to prepositions, first in that they both introduce modifiers (except that Adverbial Subordinators introduce modifier clauses instead of phrases), but also in that they share similar categories of meaning. Different types of Adverbial Clauses have their own Subordinators.

Comparison Clauses: ‘as [modifier] as’, ‘just as’, ‘like’, and ‘than’
Concession Clauses: ‘although’, ‘even though’, ‘however’, ‘much as’, ‘whereas’, etc.
Condition Clauses: ‘as long as’, ‘given that’, ‘if’, ‘provided (that)’, ‘unless’, etc.
Clauses of Duration: ‘as long as’, ‘since’, ’till’, ‘until’, and ‘while’
Clauses of Extent: ‘as far as’, ‘inasmuch as’, ’till’, and ‘until’
Clauses of Manner: ‘as if’, ‘as much as’, ‘as though’, ‘however’, ‘whichever’, etc.
Clauses of Place: ‘anywhere’, ‘as far as’, ‘everywhere’, ‘where’, and ‘wherever’
Clauses of Purpose: ‘in case’, ‘in order that’, ‘lest’, ‘so’, and ‘so that’
Clauses of Reason: ‘as’, ‘because’, ‘for’, ‘given that’, ‘now that’, ‘since’, and ‘whereas’
Clauses of Result: ‘so [modifier] that’ and ‘such [noun] that’
Clauses of Time: ‘after’, ‘as’, ‘as soon as’, ‘before’, ‘by the time (that)’, ‘once’, ‘whenever’, etc.

Note that some conjunctions can fall into multiple categories, although they would have slightly different meanings for each. Some of these Adverbial Subordinators happen to also be prepositions.

With so many different subordinators, Adverbial Subordination Conjunctions is the most versatile subset of conjunctions.

Correlative Subordinators

Examples of Correlative Conjunctions that are also Adverbial Subordinators include ‘as … as’, ‘if … then’, ‘just as … so (too)’, ‘no sooner … than’, and ‘scarcely … when’, just to name a few.

For Correlative Subordinators, the first part comes at the start of the embedded clause while the second part comes at the very end of that clause. While the positioning of most Adverbial Clauses is flexible, ones with Correlative Subordinators need to come earlier within their host clauses (often at the beginning).

Relative Subordinators

Also called relativizers or relative linkers, Relative Subordinators fulfill dual roles: not only do they link Relative Clauses to their host clauses, but they also act a pro-forms in order to fill a particular role within the structure of those Relative Clauses.

‘who(m)‘ and ‘which‘ are pronouns, taking the place of nouns.
‘when‘ and ‘where‘ are pro-adverbs, taking the place of adverbs.
‘whose‘ is a pro-determiner, taking the place of a possessive determiner.

In addition to these wh-words (which also serve as Question Words), the linker ‘that‘ can also be a Relative Subordinator pronoun when the Relative Clause is restrictive.

Content Subordinators

The Subordinators that introduce Content Clauses are usually called complementizers by linguists, though we at Insights often refer to them as cruxes since they both serve as the turning point between clauses and are typically the heart of what the sentence is ultimately about.

Here’s a list of cruxes:

‘that’
‘who’, ‘which’, ‘what’, ‘where’, ‘when’, ‘how’, ‘why’
‘whose [noun]’, ‘which [noun]’, ‘how many [noun]’, ‘how much [noun]’
‘how [adjective]’
‘whoever’, ‘whomever’, ‘whatever’, ‘whichever’, ‘however’, ‘whenever’, ‘wherever’
‘any time’, ‘anywhere’, ‘any way’, ‘every time’, ‘everywhere’, ‘every way’
‘for’
‘if’, ‘whether’

Conjunctive Adverbs

Conjunctive Adverbs are a subset of Discourse Adverbs, which modify entire clauses (or sets of clauses) in light of a broader context. In particular, Conjunctive Adverbs thematically link the clause with the clauses or sentences that precede it. They are often used to connect one sentence with others, but they can also be used to connect clauses within the same sentences that are separated by a semicolon.

Conjunctive Adverbs are not true conjunctions because they do not functionally connect certain grammar elements; rather, they serve to connect the concepts of the clauses for the purposes of better flow or understanding.

Examples of Conjunctive Adverbs include:

adversative: ‘however’, ‘instead’, ‘nevertheless’, ‘otherwise’, ‘rather’, ‘still’
comparative: ‘in contrast’, ‘likewise’, ‘similarly’
cumulative: ‘also’, ‘furthermore’, ‘in addition’
dismissive: ‘anyway’, ‘besides’, ‘in any case’, ‘regardless’
illative: ‘as a result’, ‘consequently’, ‘ergo’, ‘hence’, ‘so’, ‘therefore’, ‘thus’
successive: ‘after that’, ‘finally’, ‘next’, ‘then’
supportive: ‘in fact’, ‘indeed’, ‘moreover’

Conjunctive Adverbs typically come at the very beginning of the sentence, though some can instead fit between the subject phrase and the predicate. When at the start of the sentence, they can be preceded by ‘and’ (except for adversatives; we wouldn’t say “and however”) or possibly ‘but’.

When at the start of the clause, Conjunctive Adverbs should be immediately be followed by a comma, or perhaps a colon. When the adverbs come in the middle of the clause, they are often set apart from the rest of their clause with commas before and after.

Advanced Concepts

Parallelism

Constituents linked with Coordinating Conjunctions should be the same part of speech or the same type of phrase, or they should all be clauses. Keeping such consistency across a list is known as parallelism.

For instance, it would be bad form to list the values of “wisdom, passion, loyal, and honest”, since the list mixes nouns and adjectives. Instead either list only nouns: “wisdom, passion, loyalty, and honesty”; or only adjectives: “wise, passionate, loyal, and honest”.

Nominal constituents should all be the same case. This is particularly important for pronouns. We could say “she and he”, but not “she and him”.

Verb constituents should probably all be in the same verb form. Don’t link a Full Infinitive and a Perfect Participle, for instance. Only link verbs of differing tenses if there is a strong reason to do so and each tense is made clear.

Negation

Required Negation

The conjunction ‘nor‘ needs a negator to precede it in order to work as a Subclausal Coordinator. That negator is usually not or neither, but could also be never, no longer, no, none, nothing, no one, nobody, or nowhere. The almost-negators barely, hardly, rarely, scarcely, and seldom can also be used. Without a negator, we cannot use ‘nor’.

The negators can come with the first constituent, or they may be even before any constituents are mentioned.

Inversion

Certain conjunctions a themselves negative, including the Clausal Coordinators ‘nor‘, ‘not only … but [also/too]’, and ‘neither‘. When negative coordinators link clauses together, the clause following the negator should be inverted, meaning the leading auxiliary should come before the subject. When the main verb is BE, it can take part in the inversion if no other auxiliaries are present.

For example:

“Aksana wasn’t in the lobby, nor was she in the conference room.”
“Not only is my wallet empty, but my bank account’s low, too!”
“I don’t have the answers you’re looking for. Neither does Lola.”

And & Or

The coordinators ‘and’ and ‘or’ are certainly the most commonly-used conjunctions, and they also have distinct properties that make them particularly special. Here are some interesting things to know about ‘and’ and ‘or’:

Sometimes constituents linked with ‘and’ or ‘or’ are treated individually, and sometimes they are treated as a combined unit.
- As individuals, “Yvette and Gabriel have a dog,” means they each have a dog (and therefore there are two dogs between them), and “I can offer you tea or coffee,” implies that the speaker has both tea and coffee for the listener to choose from. This is called distributive coordination.
- A a combined unit, “Yvette and Gabriel have a dog,” means they share one dog, and “I can offer you tea or coffee,” implies that the speaker has either tea and coffee, but they’re not sure which. This is called joint coordination.
Distributive determiners (like ‘each’) and reciprocal pronouns (‘each other’ and ‘one another’) reference either a plural noun or multiple nouns connected with ‘and’.
When there are only two constituents:
- ‘and’ and ‘or’ can be accompanied by ‘both’ or ‘either’ respectively before the first constituent. The resulting correlative conjunctions do not have a different meaning from their more basic versions (‘both … and’ isn’t much different from ‘and’; ‘either … or’ isn’t much different from ‘or’), but they may help to emphasize the conjunction.
- ‘And’ can be accompanied by ‘also’, ‘too’, or ‘as well’ after the second constituent. Again, these don’t change the meaning, but they may help with emphasis.
‘And’ generally works best when all subclausal constituents are positive, but it’s possible to use it for a positive constituent followed by a negative one. When joining only negative subclausal constituents, it’s better to use ‘or’ or ‘nor’.
- “Mandy doesn’t like peanut butter and chocolate,” isn’t a strong way to express Mandy’s preferences, unless specifying that she doesn’t like it when peanut butter and chocolate are together. Instead, we would say “Mandy doesn’t like peanut butter or chocolate,” (or possibly: “Mandy doesn’t like peanut butter nor chocolate,”) to list two different things that Mandy does not like.
Repeating the same constituent after ‘and’ communicates intensity or continuation. For example, in “The light got dimmer and dimmer,” we can assume that the dimming continued until the light was barely visible.

While ‘and’ usually has a cumulative meaning, it can also take on a successive meaning similar to ‘then’, as in “Miya can downstairs and had breakfast,” in which the first constituent must come before the second. Similarly, while ‘or’ usually has an alternative meaning, it can also take on an illative meaning to express a consequence for noncompliance, as in “Don’t wash away your stamp or they won’t let you back into the club.” In both cases, the sentences wouldn’t quite work if we try to reverse the order of the constituents (as opposed to cumulative and alternative coordinators, which allow us to rearrange the order.)

No More FANBOYS

Many educators have used to the acronym FANBOYS to represent the most common Coordinating Conjunctions. This acronym stands for the linkers ‘for’, ‘and’, ‘nor’, ‘but’, ‘or’, ‘yet’, and ‘so’.

However, while ‘for’ and ‘so’ are certainly Clausal Coordinators, neither are Subclausal Coordinators; they cannot be used to link nominals, verbs, modifiers, etc. together. Therefore, Insights to English would argue that they should be excluded from the list of common Coordinating Conjunctions.

Furthermore, Insights believes that the conjunction ‘then’ should be included, as it functions on both a clausal and subclausal level, and can even be included in parasyndetic lists.

So no ‘f’ or ‘s’ in our mnemonic device, but we include a ‘t’ instead. They best acronym then is BOTANY.

Adverb Adversatives

Adverbs like ‘just’, ‘merely’, ‘only’, simply’, and sometimes other synonyms — along with the negator ‘not‘ — may be used alongside or even in place of adversative coordinators like ‘but’ or ‘yet’. In cases where there is not conjunction linking the constituents, as with all three of the following example sentences, such constructions are said to be asyndetic.

They help adversative Subclausal Coordinators highlight the contrast between their two constituents. Usually, one constituent is positive while the other is negative.
- When the positive constituent is first, we use ‘but/just/yet not‘.
- When the negative constituent is first, we use ‘not … but/just/merely/only/simply’.

In such cases, a comma or similar punctuation mark is required to separate the adverb/conjunction and final constituent from the rest of the clause, as in “This crying infant isn’t hungry, just tired.”

On its own, ‘not‘ can replace the subclausal coordinators ‘but’ or ‘yet’, as in “I’m a doctor, not a magician.”
For adversative Clausal Coordinators, ‘just’ and ‘only’ can even replace ‘but’, so long as there is comma just before that adverb, as in “I would buy you dinner, only I left my wallet at home.”
These limiting adverbs can also come after ‘not’ to modify the first constituent in ‘not just/merely/only/simply/solely … but also’.

Punctuation Options

Conjunctions are often accompanied by commas. Most commonly:

Commas come between elements in lists.
Commas come before Coordinators in compound sentences.
Commas separate non-restrictive subordinate clauses from their host clauses.

In lists, semicolons can instead be used when the listed elements are phrases or clauses that already have commas in them. For example: “Bess has been to Paris, France; London, English; and Tokyo, Japan.” or: “Vince will buy some beautiful, fragrant flowers; pick up his girlfriend; then drive to the restaurant, unless he can’t secure a reservation beforehand.”

When linking clauses, we can use other forms of punctuation like colons, semicolons, em dashes, or parentheses instead of a comma and conjunction.

The Oxford Comma

I lists, the comma after the second-to-last element and before the conjunction is called the Oxford comma or the serial comma, and it is not always used. Some people and institutions use it, while others do not.

eg: “healthy, wealthy, and wise” – vs. – “healthy, wealthy and wise”

While we at Insights to English advocate the use of the Oxford comma, what matters most is consistency. Within any written body of work: always use it, or never use it.

Bibliography

Huddleston & Pullum. The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge University Press, 2002.

English Grammar Encyclopedia for Educators