Conjunctions are words that connect words, phrases, or clauses within a sentence. They serve to join together related elements and indicate the relationship between them. There are three main types of conjunctions: coordinating conjunctions, subordinating conjunctions, and correlative conjunctions.
Coordinating conjunctions (e.g., and, but, or, so) connect words, phrases, or independent clauses of equal grammatical importance. For example, "I like tea and coffee."
Subordinating conjunctions (e.g., although, because, while, since) introduce dependent clauses, which cannot stand alone as complete sentences. They connect subordinate clauses to independent clauses. For example, "I'll go to the party if I finish my work."
Correlative conjunctions (e.g., either...or, neither...nor, both...and) work in pairs to connect elements of equal importance within a sentence. For example, "She is neither happy nor sad."
Conjunctions play a crucial role in structuring sentences and relationships between ideas, contributing to coherence and cohesion in writing and speech.