Overview of Conjunctions

What is a Conjunction?

Conjunction - a word, or a group of words which connects two or more than two:

• Letters – E.g. Let X and Y be two runners. (and – conjunction; X, Y - letters)

• Words - E.g. Trump and Putin are strong world leaders. (and – conjunction; Trump, Putin – words)

• Phrases - E.g. Indian democracy and American democracy are the largest and the oldest respectively. (and – conjunction; Indian democracy, American democracy – phrases)

• Clauses - E.g. He said that he would study. (that – conjunction; He said, he would study - clauses)

• Sentences – Conjunctions join together sentences and often make them more compact.
  E.g. He is my brother. He will play in my team.
  He is my brother, so he will play in my team.

Conjunctions Vs. Relative pronouns, Relative Adverbs and Prepositions

Conjunctions merely join. They do no other work.

Take this chair and give it to him. (and - conjunction)

But Relative Pronouns, Relative Adverbs and Prepositions not only join but also do more. E.g. a preposition governs a noun or pronoun.

Let’s see some examples:

This is the book that Any Rand wrote. (that - relative pronoun; it not only joins two parts of a sentence, but also refers to the noun ‘book’)

This is the venue where we will get married. (where - relative adverb; it not only joins two parts of a sentence, but also modifies the verb ‘will get married’)

She sat beside Mragank. (beside – preposition; Mragank – a noun which is the object of the preposition ‘beside’, which governs it)