Conjunctions Introduction

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Conjunction. It's a word that sounds vaguely unclean… like conjunctivitis (pinkeye to you) or consumption (tuberculosis).

But it's less contaminating that it sounds. We promise.

You might know the word conjunction from that infuriating Schoolhouse Rock jingle "Conjunction Junction," which sounds like a cheesy Sinatra tune. If this is your first time listening to this earworm, we're sorry. That song will be with you for life.

So what is a conjunction, besides, as Schoolhouse Rock would have us believe, a weird abandoned train depot?

Conjunctions connect words, phrases, and clauses.

There are three types:

  1. coordinating
  2. correlative
  3. subordinating

Quiz Yourself on Conjunctions

1/5

Fill in the blank in the following sentence: 


If you don't want to look __________ you're afraid of birds, you might want to stop crossing over to the other side of the street every time a pigeon crosses your path.


(A) like
(B) as though
(C) as if
(D) Both B and C

Which of these sentences are fragments? 

  1. But driving a snowmobile over a frozen river.
  2. So, despite my warning, the novice skier took on the steepest slope. 
  3. Yet snowboarding scares me more than freefalling from a plane.
(A) I
(B) II
(C) II and III
(D) None of the above

Which of the following statements is grammatically incorrect?

(A) I ran two miles more than normal today, so I am going to have a piece of cinnamon coffee cake with my afternoon latte.
(B) Even I had a hard time climbing Mt. Everest. And I hike a lot.
(C) Normally I would consider myself a coordinated person yet I look like I have two left feet when I try to backpedal.
(D) I enjoy biking but not spinning. I always feel like a hamster on a running wheel.

Which of these sentences needs a comma?

(A) Javier and Maria wanted to go biking in Central Park but the rentals were too expensive.
(B) So they decided to walk over the Brooklyn Bridge instead.
(C) Then they ate New York-style pizza.
(D) None of them.

Which of the following is grammatically incorrect? 

  1. When we moved into our new apartment, we noticed a strange smell.
  2. It seems that the former occupants owned farmyard animals.
  3. They kept potbellied pigs in the apartment. And that wasn't even the smelliest animal in their menagerie!
(A) I
(B) I and II
(C) II and III
(D) None

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