Page 74 - DENG103_English - I

Unit 6: Parts of Speech: Interjections and Conjunctions

Be careful of the conjunction SO. Sometimes it can connect two independent clauses along Notes
with a comma, but sometimes it can’t. For instance, in this sentence,
• Soto is not the only Olympic athlete in his family, so are his brother, sister, and his Uncle
Chet.
where the word so means “as well” or “in addition,” most careful writers would use a semicolon
between the two independent clauses. In the following sentence, where so is acting like a
minor-league “therefore,” the conjunction and the comma are adequate to the task:

• Soto has always been nervous in large gatherings, so it is no surprise that he avoids
crowds of his adoring fans.

Sometimes, at the beginning of a sentence, so will act as a kind of summing up device or
transition, and when it does, it is often set off from the rest of the sentence with a comma:
• So, the sheriff peremptorily removed the child from the custody of his parents.

Task What is difference between coordinating and subordinating conjunctions.

Subordinating Conjunctions
A Subordinating Conjunction (sometimes called a dependent word or subordinator) comes at
the beginning of a Subordinate (or Dependent) Clause and establishes the relationship between
the dependent clause and the rest of the sentence. It also turns the clause into something that
depends on the rest of the sentence for its meaning.
• He took to the stage as though he had been preparing for this moment all his life.

• Because he loved acting, he refused to give up his dream of being in the movies.
• Unless we act now, all is lost.
Notice that some of the subordinating conjunctions in the table below—after, before, since—
are also prepositions, but as subordinators they are being used to introduce a clause and to
subordinate the following clause to the independent element in the sentence.

Common Subordinating Conjunctions

after if though
although if only till
as in order that unless

as if now that until
as long as once when
as though rather than whenever
because since where
before so that whereas

even if than wherever
even though that while

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