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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

Subordinating conjunctions

A subordinating conjunction is part of the beginning of a dependent or subordinate clause. It has a purpose - it shows how the dependent clause’s meaning relies on the rest of the sentence. Take this sentence, for example:

Because I like exercise, I get restless if I stay still for too long.

The subordinating conjunction ‘because’ in this sentence is shown in bold font. The clause that it is part of ‘Because I like exercise’ doesn’t make sense by itself, and hence is a dependent or subordinate clause. Also, if you just read this dependent clause by itself, you won’t know what it means - it’s just a fragment. The subordinating conjunction ‘because’ tells the reader that they can search in the rest of the sentence to find the reason why I like exercise. The meaning of the dependent clause can only be fully understood when you look at the rest of the sentence.

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