Subordinating conjunctions | The parts of speech | Grammar | Khan Academy

Hey Garans, today let's start talking about subordinating conjunctions—words like although, and after, and because. This is a pretty complicated topic because, in order to understand subordinating conjunctions, you have to understand the difference between an independent and a dependent clause. That’s what subordinating conjunctions do; they unite independent and dependent clauses.

But what are these? What is an independent and a dependent clause? Well, okay, so first of all, let's back up again. What is a clause? A clause is just a language chunk that has a subject and a verb; that's what a clause does. All sentences are clauses, but not all clauses are sentences. I'll write that down: all sentences are clauses, but not all clauses are sentences.

It's possible to have something that has both a subject and a verb that doesn't stand on its own, and that's a dependent clause. We'd call that a sentence fragment. What a dependent clause does is provide extra information that isn't necessary to the understanding of the sentence, right? But an independent clause has to be able to stand on its own.

So let's take a look at the sentence here: "Herbert performed his irresponsible experiments because he was curious." This sentence is composed of two clauses. In red, we've got this independent clause, "Herbert performed his irresponsible experiments," and in green, we have this dependent clause, "because he was curious."

Now we know that "because he was curious" is the dependent clause because it explains more of why Herbert did what he did, right? It is explaining the reason for his performing irresponsible experiments. But "because he was curious" on its own doesn't work as a sentence. "He was curious" does; that's a sentence. But "because he was curious" asks more questions than it answers—because "because he was curious" what? You know, if a clause causes you to ask "yeah, so what?" then it's probably a dependent clause. Write that down. Put that in a doctrine.

So, a dependent clause should cause you to ask "yeah, so what?" because a dependent clause leans against an independent clause. It's like a ladder laid up against a tree. The tree is still standing there whether or not the ladder is there, but the ladder is useful because it allows you to get up further into the tree and explore its leaves, if that makes sense. It allows you to get further context and further understanding, but the tree could just as easily be a tree without the ladder, right? You don't have to have a ladder in order to be a tree.

All right, so another thing about the difference between coordinating and subordinating conjunctions is that coordinating conjunctions only unite independent clauses with each other. This means any sentence that has a coordinating conjunction, like "but" or anything else in FANBOYS—which is for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so—can be separated into two sentences.

Look at this: "Jimothy liked to wash the dishes, but Becky preferred to sweep the floor." Now these can each be their own sentences: "Jimothy liked to wash the dishes." "Becky preferred to sweep the floor." We can combine these if we want to, and we have—whereas this subordinating conjunction sentence that begins with "although" cannot be separated into two sentences: "Although she loves Sir Reginald, Lady Penelope hated his pranks."

So, "Lady Penelope hated his pranks," that's a sentence; "Although she loved Sir Reginald," that's not a sentence. This is a dependent clause. So this can be split, but this cannot be split because "Although she loved Sir Reginald" doesn't stand on its own. It just grants additional context and detail to the fact that Lady Penelope hated Sir Reginald's pranks.

So with that in mind, here are some of the most common subordinating conjunctions in English. Some of these you might recognize as being adverbs or prepositions in other contexts, but you can also use them to unite dependent and independent clauses.

So here we go: after, although, as, as if, because, before, even if, even though, if, if only, like, rather than, since, that, though, unless, until, when, where, whereas, wherever, whether, which, and while. All of these words have the power to unite independent and dependent clauses.

You may notice some of them, like "after" and "before," are prepositions. They can be used in many ways. English is complicated, but I am confident that you can figure this out because you can learn anything. These are some of the subordinating conjunctions of English.

David out.