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Linguistics & Grammar vocabulary · Parts of Speech

Conjunction

Meaning in linguistics & grammar, with examples

/kənˈdʒʌŋkʃn/nounCore term

In linguistics & grammar, conjunction means: A word that joins words, phrases or clauses, such as and, but, or, because, although and when.

In Turkish: bağlaç

How it is used

Coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, so) join equal parts; subordinating conjunctions (because, although, if, when) introduce subordinate clauses. Teachers also say linking words or connectors, a group that includes adverbs like however.

Example sentences

  1. 'Because' is a subordinating conjunction, so 'Because I was tired.' is not a complete sentence.

  2. 'However' is not a conjunction, so it cannot join two clauses with just a comma.

Common collocations

  • coordinating conjunction
  • subordinating conjunction
  • correlative conjunction
  • linking words
  • clauseA group of words that contains a subject and a verb and forms a sentence or part of a sentence, such as 'because it was raining'.
  • subordinate clauseA clause that depends on a main clause and cannot stand alone as a sentence, such as 'when the bell rang' or 'that she was right'.
  • part of speechOne of the classes into which words are grouped by their grammatical behaviour, such as noun, verb, adjective, adverb, pronoun, preposition and conjunction.
  • prepositionA word placed before a noun, pronoun or noun phrase to show its relation to the rest of the sentence, such as place, time or direction: in, on, at, to, with.

More terms: Parts of Speech

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