In grammar, a conjunction is a part of speech that connects two words, sentences, phrases or clauses.

A discourse connective is a conjunction joining sentences. This definition may overlap with that of other parts of speech, so what constitutes a "conjunction" must be defined for each language. In general, a conjunction is an invariable grammatical particle, and it may or may not stand between the items it conjoins. Coordinating conjunctions, also called coordinators, are conjunctions that join, or coordinate, two or more items (such as words, main clauses, or sentences) of e ual syntactic importance. In !nglish, the mnemonic acronym FANBOYS can be used to remember the coordinators for, and, nor, but, or, yet, and so. These are not the only coordinating conjunctions" various others are used, including and nor" (#ritish), "but nor" (#ritish), "or nor" (#ritish), "neither" ("They don$t gamble" neither do they smo%e"), "no more" ("They don$t gamble" no more do they smo%e"), and "only" ("I would go, only I don$t have time"). &ere are some e'amples of coordinating conjunctions in !nglish and what they do( as/because/for present an e'planation ("&e is gambling with his health, as he has been smo%ing far too long.") and presents non)contrasting item(s) or idea(s) ("They gamble and they smo%e.") nor presents a non)contrasting negative idea ("They do not gamble, nor do they smo%e.") but presents a contrast or e'ception ("They gamble, but they don$t smo%e.") or presents an alternative item or idea ("!very day they gamble or they smo%e.") yet presents a contrast or e'ception ("They gamble, yet they don$t smo%e.") so presents a conse uence ("&e gambled well last night so he smo%ed a cigar to celebrate.")

'Correlative' conjunctions wor% in pairs to join words and groups of words of e ual weight in a sentence. There are si' different pairs of correlative conjunctions(

*. either...or +. not only...but (also) ,. neither...nor (or increasingly neither...or) -. both...and .. whether...or /. just as...so

!'amples(

0ou either do your wor% or prepare for a trip to the office. Not only is he handsome, but he is also brilliant. Neither the bas%etball team nor the football team is doing well. Both the cross country team and the swimming team are doing well. Whether you stay or you go, it$s your decision. Just as many Americans love bas%etball, so many 1anadians love ice hoc%ey.

Subordinating conjunctions, also called subordinators, are conjunctions that join an independent clause and a dependent clause. The most common subordinating conjunctions in the !nglish language include after, although, as, as far as, as if, as long as, as soon as, as though, because, before, if, in order that, since, so, so that, than, though, unless, until, when, whenever, where,whereas, wherever, and while. 1omplementi2ers can be considered to be special subordinating conjunctions that introduce complement clauses( e.g. "I wonder whether he$ll be late. I hope that he$ll be on time". 3ome subordinating conjunctions (until and while), when used to introduce a phrase instead of a full clause, become prepositions with identical meanings.

In many verb)final languages, subordinate clauses must precede the main clause on which they depend. The e uivalents to the subordinating conjunctions of non)verb)final languages such as !nglish are either

clause)final conjunctions (e.g. in 4apanese)" or suffi'es attached to the verb, and not separate words

3uch languages often lac% conjunctions as a part of speech, because(

1. the form of the verb used is formally nominalised and cannot occur in an independent clause 2. the clause)final conjunction or suffi' attached to the verb is a mar%er of case and is also used in nouns to indicate
certain functions. In this sense, the subordinate clauses of these languages have much in common with postpositional phrases.

In other 5est 6ermanic languages li%e 6erman and 7utch, the word order after a subordinating conjunction is different from that in an independent clause, e.g. in 7utch want ("for") is coordinating, but omdat ("because") is subordinating. The clause after the coordinating conjunction has normal word order, but the clause after the subordinating conjunction has verb)final word order. 1ompare( &e goes home, for he is ill. &e goes home because he is ill.