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Conjunctions and lists

Coordinating conjunctions

Lists in a sentence

Lists connected by coordinating conjunctions

Contrasting two things

Starting a sentence with the conjunctions and or but

Starting with because

Using neither nor

Correlative conjunctions

Subordinating conjunctions

Correlative conjunctions

‘Neither...nor’ is an example of a correlative conjunction. These are pairs of conjunctions that join together bits of a sentence. The bits of the sentence after each of the conjunctions are grammatically the same in structure. Here are some examples:

‘Either’ and ‘or’:

Either I go, or she goes.

‘Not only’ and ‘but also’:

Not only was giganotosaurus probably longer, but also heavier.

Be careful that the parts of the sentence following each of the conjunctions are grammatically the same in structure. Here’s an example of what not to do:

Cars are both dangerous and pollute the environment.

Dangerous is simply an adjective. ‘Pollute the environment’ is a phrase that includes a verb. You should change the sentence, so that the parts following both conjunctions are of similar grammatical structure:

Cars are both dangerous and polluting.

Now we’ve got a single adjective following each conjunction - ‘dangerous’ and ‘polluting’.

Click here to move on to the next topic: Subordinating conjunctions