An explanation of the use of conjunctions in English.

1. CONJUNCTIONS
Conjunctions arewords that link 2 independent clauses together to unite
them in one sentence.
The 4 main conjunctions are ‘and’, ‘but’, ‘or’ and ‘so’.
AND
‘And’ can be used to make a list in a sentence:
I like coffee and tea.
If there are more than 2 things to list we can use a comma before the ‘and’:
Last week we wentto the cinema, the fairground, and the stadium.
(However, somepeople do not use the comma.)
Itis also used to join 2 independent clauses:
(I went to Spain last year/I saw therunning of the bulls)
I wentto Spain last year and saw the running of the bulls.
You can see that we do not need to repeat the subject‘I’ after ‘and’.
We can also use‘and’ to
- talk about a chronological sequence:
I woke up this morning and had breakfast.
- show one action is the result of another:
The students heard the teacher coming and started behaving.

2. BUT
We use ‘but’ to talk about a contrast between 2 ideas:
I like rock music but I don’tlike reggaeton.
She went all the way to New York but didn’tsee the Empire State Building.
OR
We use ‘or’ to
- talk about 2 or more differing options:
We could go to an Italian restaurant or a Thai restaurant.
- to suggestonly one possibility excluding the other:
You can work hard or you can fail.
SO
We use ‘so’ similarly to the final use of ‘and’ – to show one actionis the
result of another:
The students heard the teacher coming so started behaving.
Itis more powerfulthan ‘and’ and shows moreof a relation. Itcould
translate as: ‘and as a result’.
My dog doesn’tlike loud noises so we don’ttake him with us to firework
displays.
Itcan also be used similar to ‘as well’ or ‘in addition’ (we usually usea semi-
colon in this sense):
My parentsare membersof the golf club; so are my boyfriend’s.