Grammar: How to Link Ideas in Sentences (by Carla)

Hello all!

I hope you are keeping well.

Today we are going to explore how to link ideas in sentences and within sentences. When you are writing, whether it is an email or an essay, you often need to link your ideas together. Imagine your text is a river and your ideas need to "flow" together. Your written text shouldn't be a "shopping list" of sentences, the sentences need to follow a logical order and be linked.

Conjunctions are used to link words, phrases and clauses. There are several types of conjunctions - including coordinating conjunctions and subordinating conjunctions. Moreover, conjunctive adverbs can also be used to link your written ideas. I am sure you have heard your teachers mention "connectives" or "connectors" before and essentially, these are names for conjunctions and conjunctive adverbs.  

Conjunctions are linking words. Your written work will benefit from using a range of conjunctions - not only the common conjunctions of 'and', 'but' and 'then'. Conjunctions should provide a smooth link between ideas. They can help you write longer sentences without sounding awkward. Conjunctions can also add clarity to your writing, especially when writing an essay.

Think of your written work as a chain (cadena). Each sentence is a link (eslabón) that needs to be linked to the next link.

COORDINATING CONJUCTIONS

Coordinating conjunctions connect words, phrases and clauses. Clauses are the building blocks of a sentence and conjunctions can help link them together. Coordinating conjunctions are placed between the words and phrases they are linking, not at the start or end of a sentence.

For example, here are two separate clauses I want to join in the same phrase:

'My name is Carla.' + 'I am English.'

A coordinating conjunction helps me link these two clauses and turn them into a single sentence:

'My name is Carla and I am English.'

There are 7 coordinating conjunctions. The acrostic FAN BOYS can be used to remember them:

• For

• And

• Nor

• But

• Or

• Yet

• So

These conjunctions often link equal parts of the whole sentence (i.e. separate clauses) and bring ideas together. For example:

'Many students are trying to improve their English, so they are reading many books'

'I am not a fan of tuna or salmon'

'I wanted to be a rock climber, but I am afraid of heights'

CONJUNCTIVE ADVERBS

Conjunctive adverbs can also be used to link ideas in your writing. They are used in a similar way to coordinating conjunctions. There are dozens of these adverbs. For example:

• however

• also

• therefore

• meanwhile

• nevertheless

• moreover

Unlike coordinating conjunctions, conjunctive adverbs can be moved around in the sentence:

• ‘Alice trained hard for her race; however, she didn’t beat the record.’

• ‘Alice trained hard for her race; she didn’t beat the record, however.’

Notice that a semicolon ( ; ) is required to separate clauses when using conjunctive adverbs within a single sentence.

SUBORDINATING CONJUCTIONS

Subordinating conjunctions link two clauses together, a main clause and a subordinate clause, and help to show the relationship between the two clauses.

ORDER

The relationship between them could be related to the order in which something happens, expressed using a subordinating conjunction such as when, before or after.

For example: 'Before completing the assignment, students should finish the book.'

--> Here 'students should finish the book' is the main, or independent, clause. 'Before completing the assignment' tells us when they should do it

CAUSE AND EFFECT

They can also indicate a cause and effect relationship - when something happens because something else has happened.

For example: ‘Her feet were uncomfortable because she wore new shoes.’

--> The uncomfortable feet have been caused by the new shoes - the effect of new shoes are uncomfortable feet.

These conjunctions are very useful when structuring an argument, as they show a cause and effect relationship.

Some more subordinating conjunctions used to indicate cause and effect are:

• consequently

• therefore

ADD MORE INFORMATION

Subordinating conjunctions tend to add more information to the main part of the sentence. Clauses that start with a subordinating conjunction can also be moved to the start of the sentence, unlike coordinating conjunctions:

• ‘Although she was tired, she kept running.’

• ‘ She kept running, although she was tired.’

COMPRATING AND CONTRASTING CONJUNCTIONS

Comparing and contrasting conjunctions link ideas that are similar or different:

• equally

• similarly

• likewise

• in comparison

• whereas

• in contrast

• alternatively

• otherwise

These conjunctions are very important if you are writing a direct comparison of two or more things, for instance in argumentative essays:

‘Many African countries have banned plastic bags; in contrast America does not have a nationwide ban.’

Many of these conjunctions can be used to structure an overall argument, as well as link ideas within sentences.

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I hope today's lesson has been enlightening! I know grammar can be a bit difficult to understand, but hopefully the examples have made this lesson clearer.

From now on, try to experiment with different types of connectives in your written tasks! You'll see the positive effect they will have on your grades and on your knowledge of English :)

Best wishes,

Carla