Conjunction

As I have posted in the previous posting about part of speech that it is used to join words and words, phrases and phrases and clauses and clauses. In this writing I would like to explain more about it. However, before I tell you more about this, I want you to check your understanding yourselves about it by giving you a paragraph. Here is the paragraph that you can identify the conjunctions.

Garden or Street

We know the difference between garden and street. The garden is used to plant trees while the street is used by the passers to pass. It may be used to go to market, campus and so on. However, now the street has bilingual function. It is not really only used to go to market or campus but also it is used to plant trees. Can you imagine what it looks like if in the middle of the street is planted trees such as banana trees, peanut trees and so on? What happens to the people nowadays? They are planting such many trees in the middle that troubles passers. Is the garden not enough anymore to plant so that they decide to plant in the middle of street?

Rasau Jaya is a part of Kubu Raya regency. There are many gardens that inhabitants have. I think the gardens that they have are wide enough. They will be never able to make their own gardens full of the plants. However, now there we can find people planting such trees in the middle of the street. It is really unusual, isn’t it? We might be wondering what is happening to the people in Rasau Jaya. They have many wide gardens but they still use the street to plant kind of trees. Are the people in Rasau Jaya crazy?

When I went to Rasau Jaya three days ago, I was surprised to see many trees in the middle of the street. I thought this street would be closed so that they could use it to plant trees. I was confused how to go home if there is no street. I do not have any plane, I said in my heart, so that I can use to flight trough the air. And I do not need the street anymore. But I still need the street to drive my motorcycle. I do not have enough money to buy a plane. The street was built many years ago but now it will not be used anymore. How come? A big question was in my mind until I met someone to be asked.

Sir, what is the matter with the street? We can find a lot of trees on the middle of it. I asked one of the teachers at SMK Rasau Jaya. He smiled and gave me a magazine. Then, he showed me a part that explained about that case. I read for a moment. Then I said how crazy men in Rasau Jaya. They plant something to symbolize that the street was really broken. They criticized Kubu Raya governor to fix the street. They did not have any choice to tell the governor to complain about the broken street that was not fixed. They said it was not fair. They paid the taxes on time but the street was broken. What do the taxes that they paid for their vehicle every year for? They are still difficult to drive their vehicle. And sometimes they fall down because of the big holes on it.

I think even what they do is unusual thing, it is good enough. It is better to do than to complain directly to the governor office by breaking everything like what we sometimes see on TV when a lot of people smash some buildings by casting stones or woods that makes the buildings broken. And I could drive my motorcycle in good way because the holes on the street have been planted trees. I could see from far distance. But can this make the governor fix the street as what the people in Rasau Jaya wish?

Fortunately, a day after that, I went to Rasau Jaya again, I found the street was being repaired. The holes on the street one by one was covered by the asphalts. I thought they were success on making the governor pay for fixing the street. And now I can pass there nicely without thinking of the holes on the street. Thanks the governor, you make me easy to pass. 

How many conjunctions that you can find in the story above? Can mention them one by one? Do you know what they are classified into? Well, to answer those questions, let me explain you about the kinds of conjunctions first.

1.      Coordinate conjunction

It is used to join words and words, phrases and phrases, and clauses and clauses equally. In this conjunction we may not join words and clauses or words and phrases because when we put these conjunctions, it must be equal. It is easy to memorize. We can call it FANBOYS- For, And, Nor, But, Yet and So.

Example

»  She can go and come whenever she wants. Conjunction ‘and’ in the sentence joins a word and a word. It is between ‘go’ and ‘come’.

»  She goes to Jakarta but her boy friend goes to Pontianak. It is clear that the conjunction ‘but’ joins the contrast idea.

»  Which one do you prefer milk or coffee?

»  He has studied English for ten months. Yet, he cannot speak English at all.

»  Henry is really hungry, so he eats all bananas in the basket.

2.      Correlative conjunction

This conjunction is different from coordinate conjunction. If coordinate conjunction has just one conjunction such as and, but and others but correlative conjunction has pairs. They should be parallel. Here are the correlative conjunctions;

»     Not only…….but also….

John is not only a kind man but also a smart man.

»    Both……….and….

My teacher can speak both English and Arabic.

»  Either…….or…..

Either Henry or William will get gift from their English teacher.

»  Neither……nor….

She has neither money nor food

3.      Conjunctive adverb

Conjunctive adverb is an adverb that functions to join independent clauses. Have a look the example below!

·         Many people want to have a good job. However, to have it is not easy.

·         Jerry gets A for all his subjects; therefore, his parents buy her a new car.

·         He really wants to continue studying at university meanwhile his parents want him to get job now.

·         She does not have enough money to buy a new bike. Thus, she postpones buying it until she gets her next salary.

The bold words above are the conjunction adverbs. There are still many others that you can see below. I got those words from one of English grammar books that I have. Here they are:

after all

in addition

next

also	incidentally	nonetheless
as a result	indeed	on the contrary
besides	in fact	on the other hand
consequently	in other words	otherwise
finally	instead	still
for example	likewise	then
furthermore	meanwhile	therefore
hence	moreover	thus
however	nevertheless

4.      Subordinating conjunction

This conjunction, I think, is very complicated. There are many things that will be discussed in it; for instance, we will discuss about conditional sentences that use ‘if’ as the conjunction. ‘If’ here is one of the subordinating conjunctions. Not only this but also we will discuss many things such as ‘because’ that indicates ‘reason’, ‘that’ that indicates ‘noun clause and so on. However, here we will not discuss all about that, we will discuss just little about it because next we will have more in understanding clauses, type of conditional sentences and so on.

Actually, it is not too difficult to understand. What makes it difficult is just because there are many sub materials that study about it as well. However, for you as the English beginner, you should not think much about it because you have already used it. You just do not know the name of it; for instance, the word ‘after’. This word is one of subordinating conjunction that joins clauses. Look at the example below!

»  Your teachers will be proud of you if you pass the exam this year.

»  I try to do whatever my parents want.

»  She moved to another village after her father had passed away.

Those examples above are about two clauses that are joined by using subordinating conjunctions. The bold words are some of many subordinating conjunctions. Well, I think I should give you some more words of subordinating conjunctions. It is just to let you know. I am not so great at memorizing, so what I write below is not my own writing. I got the words from internet. Here they are;

after	in order (that)	unless
although	insofar as	until
as	in that	when
as far as	lest	whenever
as soon as	no matter how	where
as if	now that	wherever
as though	once	whether
because	provided (that)	while
before	since	why
even if	so that
even though	supposing (that)
how	than
if	that
inasmuch as	though
in case (that)	till

Now, to check your understanding, please do the following exercises!

a.       Identify the paragraph above. Its title is Garden or Street.

·         How many conjunctions that you can find?

·         What are they?

·         What are they classified into?

b.      Make sentences by using correlative conjunction; not only…but also…, both…..and…, neither…..nor…, and either…..or…

c.       Make sentences by using FANBOYS.

That’s all for now!

Thanks