Subordinating Conjunctions
A conjunction is a word that joins two parts of a sentence.
There are two kinds of conjunctions - Coordinating conjunctions and Subordinating conjunctions.
Subordinating conjunctions establish relationships between two ideas and always come at the beginning of a subordinate or dependent clause.
For example:
- Carly played outside in the yard until it was too dark to see.
- We went to the diner after the movie, then we went home.
- This car is much larger than the one we used to have.
- I didn't go to school yesterday because I was not feeling well.
- The swimmers stayed close to shore as the waves were very powerful.
The underlined words in these sentences are subordinating conjunctions.
For example:
Carly played outside in the yard until it was too dark to see.
Here, the clause 'it was too dark to see' is a subordinate clause because it is dependent on another for its full meaning.
List of Common Subordinating Conjunctions
These are some common subordinating conjunctions:
- After
- As
- Because
- Even though
- Now that
- Rather than
- So that
- That
- Until
- When
- While
Combining Sentences Using Subordinating Conjunctions
- Subordinating conjunctions can be used to combine two ideas.
Take a look at these sentences and consider how we can combine the independent and dependent clauses into one sentence.
-
Robert won't go to the party. His brother will go with him.
-
Robert won't go to the party unless his brother goes with him.
-
Ellen was out of breath. Ellen ran a mile in record time.
-
After she ran the mile in record time Ellen was out of breath.
-
Rooney watched TV. He also tried to do his homework.
-
Rooney tried to do his homework while he watched TV.
-
The plane has stopped. The passengers will get off the plane
-
Now that the plane has stopped, the passengers will get off.
- A conjunction is a word that joins two parts of a sentence.
- There are two kinds of conjunctions - Coordinating conjunctions and Subordinating conjunctions.
- Subordinating conjunctions establish relationships between two ideas and always come at the beginning of a subordinate or dependent clause.
- These are some common subordinating conjunctions:
- After
- As
- Because
- Even though
- Now that
- Rather than
- So that
- That
- Until
- When
- While
- Subordinating conjunctions can be used to combine two ideas.
