Conjunctions

CONJUNCTIONS

    • A conjunction joins words or word groups; they connect things.

COORDINATING CONJUNCTIONS

    • Coordinating conjunctions join words or word groups that are used in the same way.

Examples:       1. The orchestra played waltzes and polkas.   [joins two direct objects]

                        2.We can walk to the neighborhood pool or to the park.   [joins two prep. phrases]

                        3. I looked for Hal, but he had already left.   [joins two independent clauses]

CORRELATIVE CONJUNCTIONS

      Correlative conjunctions are pairs of conjunctions that join words or word groups that are used in the same way.

Examples:       1. Neither the basketball team nor the soccer team has practice today.

                        2.   Both the track team and the volleyball team enjoyed a winning season.

                        3.   Their victories sparked the enthusiasm not only of students but also of

                              teachers and townspeople.

INTERJECTIONS

    • An interjection expresses emotion.

    • An interjection has NO GRAMMATICAL RELATION to the rest of the sentence.

    • An interjection is generally set off from the rest of the sentence by an exclamation point or by a comma or commas.

    • Exclamation points indicate strong emotion.

    • Commas indicate mild emotion.

    • Interjections are common in casual conversation. In writing, however, they are usually used ONLY in informal notes and letters, in advertisements, and in dialogue.

Examples:       Whew! What a day I’ve had!

                        Well, I’m just not sure.

                        There must be, oh my, a dozen snakes there.

Use the following interjections to complete each sentence: excellent, oops, well, whew, whoa, hey, ouch, cool, wow, yow. (Check your punctuation and capitalization!)

  1. _____________ that’s hot!

  2. _____________ I forgot to do my homework.

  3. _____________... [continues]

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