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

Hello Garans. All right, today I want to start talking about conjunctions. Conjunctions are this part of speech that has a very particular function in English, and what it does is unite words, phrases, and clauses. Let me show you an example.

So, if you want to talk about two things, you could say peanut butter and jelly. Or, if I were going to paraphrase Eddie Izzard, I might offer you the choice of cake or death. You could also describe something as being sad but true. These three are the most commonly used conjunctions because I would be remiss if I didn't mention the seminal conjunction song that got me into the grammar game in the first place: Conjunction Junction, which I think was written by Jack Sheldon or performed by Jack Sheldon in like 1973, Schoolhouse Rock. It's great, look it up.

What I'm going to talk about today is a mnemonic or a memory aid called FANBOYS. You may have heard this before. FANBOYS is how we remember the coordinating conjunctions. And you don't need to worry about the name coordinating conjunctions; we'll get to that later. For now, just remember FANBOYS: for, nor, but, or, yet, and so. We'll go through how each one of these is used over in the next screen.

Follow me downstairs. So, we've got for, nor, but, or, yet, and so. Each of them has a different basic function. Let's review them. For has this connotation; you can use it the way you would use a word like since or because, as in: I do not eat buttons, for they are not food. You can see I'm combining these two little sentences using the word for. We're using this for to explain my reasoning: I do not eat buttons because they are not food. For is a simpler way to express that.

The conjunction "and" is a very elemental, very important conjunction that combines one thing with another, as in: the kangaroo robbed the bank and torched the saloon. Rather a criminal kangaroo! You can see we're using "and" to combine these two ideas, right? We're saying this thing happened, and this thing also happened; they happened together.

"Nor" is similar to "and," but we use it to combine untrue things. We use it to express negation. So, if I were going to talk about an angry tree spirit, for example, just to pull an example out of a hat, I could say: she won't leave her tree, nor will she speak with humans.

We use "but" to express exceptions, as in: we used every building material but chewing gum. Right, chewing gum is the exception to every building material. We use "or" as a conjunction to choose between options, as in: would you rather have a pet bear or a pet giraffe? We ask about hard questions in Con Academy.

"Yet" is kind of like "but," except that we use it to express unexpected things. So, I'm just going to write: to the contrary, as if I were Sherlock Holmes hollering at a confused Watson. "To the contrary, my good man Watson!" This is how we use "yet." I'll show you: I want to leave, yet I cannot.

So, it sets up this kind of push and pull dynamic in a sentence, is what "yet" does. We set the expectation: I want to leave, and yet here’s the unexpected, what I’d say an ironic part: yet I cannot. I want to leave, but unfortunately—or, but unexpectedly, when you would say "but unexpectedly," just use "yet."

Finally, the last part of FANBOYS is "so." It shows consequences: Dogall was allergic to sheep, so he skipped the Wool Festival. Right? So we're trying to set up that as a consequence of the first clause—Dogall being allergic to sheep—the thing that follows is because of that he decided to skip the Wool Festival.

This is FANBOYS: for, nor, but, or, yet, and so. These are all covered in the exercises. You can learn anything. Dave, it out.