Sentence structure: Joining sentences

You can join two short sentences into one with a conjunction (a word that links sentences). It makes you sound more fluent.

Bring the pieces together

In this chapter

Six conjunctions
Adding
Example: and
Example: but
and, but, or
Example: I like apples, and my brother likes bananas.
Example: It was sunny, but it was cold.
because and so
because + reason.
Example: I wore a coat because it was cold.
Example: It was cold, so I wore a coat.
because ↔ so
because (reason): We took umbrellas because it was raining. · so (result): It was raining, so we took umbrellas.
when
when at the start → a comma between the two parts.
Example: When I got home, my dog ran to me.
Example: My dog ran to me when I got home.
Commas
When we join two full sentences with and / but / so, we usually put a comma before the conjunction. When because is in the middle, we usually don't put a comma before it.
Tip
because answers “Why?”; so answers “What happened?” Same two sentences, opposite order: It rained, so we stayed in. = We stayed in because it rained.

Position 2 of 7 chapters at A2.