#coordinating conjunctions

Normally, if you’re creating a compound sentence, you would only add a comma before the coordinating conjunction (FANBOYS) if the second clause includes a second subject:

Correct: He forgot his keys, so he ran to the car. (He ran to his car)

That’s easy enough most of the time, but sometimes the subject is known and thus omitted from the second clause. 

Incorrect: He forgot the keys, then ran back to the house. 

Here, there shouldn’t be a comma, because I didn’t explicitly state a subject for the second clause. Old-school rules say I’m cutting off the clause from its subject, “he.”  Unfortunately, I tend to think of anything prefixed by a coordinating conjunction as an independent clause, and add the second comma. Case in point? This sentence:

Unfortunately, I tend to think of anything prefixed by a coordinating conjunction as an independent clause, and add the second comma. (There’s no “I” in the second sentence, so I should have omitted the comma)

Alternatively, consider the second sentence: 

There’s no “I” in the second sentence, so I should have omitted the comma. (Here, the second coordinating clause has its own subject, so I should keep the comma.)

Should the first example be called a complex sentence instead of a compound one? I don’t think so--that implies one clause has more weight than the other, when they’re actually pretty similar. 

Here’s a proper complex sentence: one subordinate clause, one independent clause: 

Although I love fruit, I refrained from eating at the fairy’s buffet. 

It’s clear that the second half of the sentence matters more than the first half. I could cut off the first clause and the point would still stand. That’s generally the case with SUBORDINATing conjunctions--by definition, they make one clause subordinate to the other. 

I tend to add the technically unnecessary comma to my longer sentences because the reader is unlikely to forget the subject of the sentence but can get lost in a long idea. Additionally, we tend to pause at the coordinating conjunctions, and commas often indicate pauses. 

This is usually less of a problem in my academic writing, but I hate how often it comes up in my fiction. Sometimes I fight the system and sometimes I cave by deleting the comma or adding a subject to the second sentence. 

HIIIIII I AM BACK

(edit: the formatting is really awful I can't manage to put space between the lines on mobile help!!)

This time, it’s gonna be about coordinating conjunctions! This is more basic level, I guess, but it’s something really important to articulate your speech and start making up real sentences instead of just stringing pieces of sentences together without any natural flow to it (which is already really awesome to do, mind you).

Here’s the magic sentence every French pupil learns in school to remember coordinating conjunctions:

Mais où est donc Ornicar ?

This roughly means “Where in the world is Ornicar?” and each syllable corresponds to one of those conjunctions (the spelling isn’t necessarily the same since that sentence is just for phonetic purposes, so beware). Here’s the list (with marvelous and unnecessarily long example sentences that you shouldn’t take seriously):

- “mais”: means “but”.

=> J’adore le fromage mais j’y suis allergique. (I love cheese but I’m allergic to it.)

=> - Allez, au lit maintenant ! - Mais j’ai pas fini mon yaourt ! (- Come on, let’s go to bed now! - But I haven’t finished eating my yogurt!)

- “ou”: means “or”. It’s written “où” above, but that’s another word so don’t confuse them.

=> Tu préfères le jus d’orange ou le jus de pomme le matin ? (Do you prefer orange juice or apple juice in the morning?)

=> Arrête de répondre ou je vais m’énerver. (Stop talking back or I’m going to get angry.)

- “et”: means “and”.

=> Ma mère a habité à Paris et à Bordeaux. (My mom has lived in Paris and in Bordeaux.)

=> Il faut que j’aille à la boulangerie acheter une baguette et des éclairs au chocolat. (I have to go to the bakery to buy a baguette and chocolate éclairs.)

- “donc”: means “so” (expresses the idea of consequence).

=> La poste est fermée cet après-midi donc j’irai demain. (The postal office is closed this afternoon so I’ll go tomorrow.)

=> Il a insulté mes parents donc je lui ai foutu une grosse baffe dans sa gueule. (He insulted my parents so I slapped the shit out of his fucking face.)

- “or”: means “yet/but”. It’s quite formal so you’ll mostly see it in written French.

=> Elle m’a accusé d’avoir volé son oeuf en chocolat, or je ne sais même pas où il est. (She accused me of stealing her chocolate egg, but I don’t even know where it is.)

=> Ils disent qu’ils n’ont plus d’argent, or ils viennent de s’acheter une télé 4K. (They say they have no money left, yet they just bought a 4K TV.)

- “ni”: corresponds to the “neither... nor.../either... or...” form; in French, you just say “ni... ni...”.

=> Vous n’aimez ni le McDo, ni les kebabs ? Vous êtes vraiment bizarres ! (You don’t like either McDonald’s or kebabs? You’re really weird!)

=> Ni moi ni lui n’irons à sa fête d’anniversaire débile, il n’est même pas venu à la nôtre ! (Neither I nor he will be going to his dumb birthday party, he didn’t even come to ours!)

- “car”: means “because”. There’s a more informal version (”parce que”) that you’ll hear more often but this one you’ll see more in books and written stuff in general.

=> Elles ne sont pas venues hier car leur fils est tombé malade dans la matinée. (They didn’t come yesterday because their son had gotten sick in the morning.)

=> Je ne peux pas porter de chaussettes aujourd’hui car j’ai des ampoules. (I can’t wear socks today because I’ve got blisters.)

Here a just a few conjunctions for German. The coordinating list is complete but there are so many more for subordinating conjunctions but these are the mains ones which I have encountered in my lessons.

Coordinating:

[word order is unchanged; verb remains the second idea]

und  – and aber – but oder – or denn – because sondern – but/but rather

Subordinating:

[send the verb to the end of the clause]

Conjunction is a part of speech that is used to join two words, two sentences, two phrases and two clause. All the Conjunctions are divided into following classes: 

Co-ordinating Conjunctions

Sub-ordinating Conjunctions

Coordinating Conjunctions

Coordinating Conjunctions

A coordinating conjunction is used to join together words, phrases, clauses, or sentences. There are seven coordinating conjunctions: and, but, for, nor, or, so, and yet. These words can be remembered by remembering FANBOYS (F = for; A = and; and so on). The most commonly used of these conjunctions are and and but. And connects similar ideas…