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

Hey Garans! Today we're going to be talking about correlative conjunctions, and I know this looks like a pretty ugly word—correlative. Like it's kind of complicated looking, but let's break it down.

This co-art comes from a Latin "comm," meaning "with" or "together," and "relative." Well, we know what the word relative is; like your aunt, or your uncle, or your cousin is a relative. Uh, so we're just going to say that just means "relative" or "related."

So, correlative conjunctions—there we see it—definitionally are, or atomically, are related together in some way. They're matched pairs; they're a matching set. This just means that when you see one, it's probably time to use the other.

In this video, we'll go through five of my favorites. So, "either or" is a good pair to start off with. And when you start a sentence with "either or," either— I don't know how you say it—um, it sets up the expectation that you're going to have to be choosing between two things.

So, we're going to say "or" later in the sentence, as in "what is reputed to be Oscar Wild's last words: either the wallpaper goes, or I do." The opposite of "either or" is "neither nor."

So, "either or" sets up this choice between two options, and "neither nor" rejects both options. So, neither Gia nor Becca liked Howard. And I recognize that I say "neither" and some of you say "neither," and there's a whole George Gershwin song about that. But let's just chalk it up to my Midwestern American accent—how about either, either, neither, neither?

Let's learn about some conjunctions! But, oh, if we talk about the both, then you use "and." And oh, if you learn to use conjunctions, that is grand! Oh yes, both Big B and Leo were career criminals, right?

We're using "both" to indicate a connection between two things, and then we use "and" later in the sentence to really firm that up. "As" is kind of an interesting one; it's a little formal, um, and it kind of allows you to set up this relationship of consequence, right? To say if one thing is happening, then another thing happens as a consequence.

So, "as goes Kansas, so goes the nation." So, you know, "as"—as one thing happens, so must another thing happen—is what this is trying to set up.

"Whether and or" is similar to "either and or," except it has a kind of whiff of possibility about it: "Whether you like shrimp or chocolate, there's certain to be something for you at the Veracruz food fair." Right? Because "whether" is kind of setting up this possibility between these two options, and it doesn't really matter which one you choose there.

It's just offering up possibilities. And I would like to offer you the possibility of checking out more of these correlative conjunctions in our exercises. So stick around! You can learn anything; Dave it out!