Grammar Review: Conjunctions

Being able to effectively use conjunctions is an important part of writing. Conjunctions join sentences together.

The three main conjunctions that we’re going to take a look at are “and”, “but”, and “or”. All of these conjunctions have specific uses, but you use conjunctions to join two sentences that are similar together. You wouldn’t join two sentences together with a conjunction that are totally unrelated, but when they are similar to each other, when they’re talking about the same things, oftentimes you can join them together.

Now, a lot of times, these two sentences would sound fine by themselves, but it sounds even better when you join them together. You use the conjunction “and” when there are two ideas that are alike. We could say, “He is wearing glasses and he is walking on the sidewalk.” These two phrases, or these two sentences, are alike, because they’re both describing this person. They’re saying that he’s wearing glasses and he’s walking on the sidewalk. Notice that before the conjunction we put a comma.

The next conjunction is “but”, which is used when two ideas are different. These two sentences are talking about the same types of things, but they are conflicting with each other. “She usually eats healthy, but she is eating a candy bar.” So these sentences are both talking about her eating habits, but they are conflicting with each other. They are different than each other, so we use the conjunction “but”.

Then we come to “or”, which we use when there is a choice between two ideas. “I will vacuum the rug, or I will shake it out.” The author is going to do one or the other. All three of these conjunctions do the same thing; they all join sentences together, but they all have different functions they’re all used in different situations. To use a conjunction like this, you need to make sure that these are complete sentences.

Notice here that we have a subject “he” and a verb “is”. Then we have a subject here, “he”, and we have a verb here, “is”. You need to make sure these are complete sentences you are joining together. You join them together with a comma and then a conjunction such as “and”, “but”, or “or”.