In grammar, a conjunction (abbreviated conj or cnj) is a
part of speech that connects two words, sentences,
phrases or clauses together. A discourse connective is a conjunction joining sentences. This definition may overlap with that of other parts of speech, so what constitutes a "conjunction" must be defined for each language. In general, a conjunction is an invariable grammatical particle, and it may or may not stand between the items it conjoins. The definition may also be extended to idiomatic phrases that behave as a unit with the same single-word conjunction. What is a conjunction?
Coordinating conjunctions
Correlative conjunctions
Subordinating conjunctions Types of conjunctions
Coordinating conjunctions, also called coordinators, are conjunctions that join two or more items of equal syntactic importance, such as words, main clauses, or sentences. In English the mnemonic acronym FANBOYS can be used to remember the coordinators for, and, nor, but, or, yet, and so.These are not the only coordinating conjunctions; various others are used, including"and nor" (British), "but nor" (British), "or nor" (British), "neither" ("They don't gamble; neither do they smoke"), "no more" ("They don't gamble; no more do they smoke"), and "only" ("I would go, only I don't have time"). Here are some examples of coordinating conjunctions in English and what they do: Coordinating conjunction
Examples or presents an alternative item or idea ("Every day they gamble or they smoke."). yet presents a contrast or exception ("They gamble, yet they don't smoke."). so presents a consequence ("He gambled well last night so he smoked a cigar to celebrate."). for presents a reason ("He is gambling with his health, for he has been smoking far too long."). and presents non-contrasting item(s) or idea(s) ("They gamble, and they smoke."). nor presents a non-contrasting negative idea ("They do not gamble nor do they smoke."). but presents a contrast or exception ("They gamble, but they don't smoke.").
Correlative conjunctions work in pairs to join words and groups of words of equal weight in a sentence. There are six different pairs of correlative conjunctions:
either...or not only...but (also) neither...nor (or increasingly neither...or) both...and whether...or just as...so
Correlative conjunctions
You either do your work or prepare for a trip to the office. Not only is he handsome, but he is also brilliant. Neither the basketball team nor the football team is doing well. Both the cross country team and the swimming team are doing well. Whether you stay or you go, it's your decision. Just as Aussies love Aussie rules football, so many Canadians love ice hockey. Examples
Subordinating conjunctions, also called subordinators, are helpful in writing paragraphs with an independent clause and a dependent clause. The most common subordinating conjunctions in the English language include after, although, as, as far as, as if, as long as, as soon as, as though, because, before, if, in order that, since, so, so that, than, though, unless, until, when, whenever, where, where as, wherever, and while. Complementizers can be considered to be special subordinating conjunctions that introduce complement clauses (e.g., "I wonder whether he'll be late. I hope that he'll be on time"). Some subordinating conjunctions (until and while), when used to introduce a phrase instead of a full clause, become prepositions with identical meanings. Subordinating conjunctions
In many verb-final languages, subordinate clauses must precede the main clause on which they depend. The equivalents to the subordinating conjunctions of non-verb-final languages such as English are either clause-final conjunctions (e.g., in Japanese), or suffixes attached to the verb and not separate words[6] Such languages in fact often lack conjunctions as a part of speech because: the form of the verb used is formally nominalised and cannot occur in an independent clause the clause-final conjunction or suffix attached to the verb is actually formally a marker of case and is also used on nouns to indicate certain functions. In this sense, the subordinate clauses of these languages have much in common with postpositional phrases.