Sentence Connectors
| She drinks coffee. He drinks tea. | (Two separate sentences) |
| She drinks coffee, but he drinks tea. | (Coordination) |
| She drinks coffee, and he drinks tea. | (Both ideas are equal) |
| She drinks coffee; he drinks tea. | (Closely related ideas) |
| Although she drinks coffee, he drinks tea. | (Subordination) |
| She drinks coffee although he drinks tea. | (One idea is stronger) |
| Although she drinks coffee, but he drinks tea. | (INCORRECT!) |
| She drinks coffee; however, he drinks tea. | (Sentence connector) |
| She drinks coffee. However, he drinks tea. | (Stronger break between ideas) |
| She drinks coffee. He, however, drinks tea. | (Variation) |
Remember:
A period (.) provides the strongest break between ideas.
A semicolon (;) is next, and a comma (,) provides the weakest separation.
Coordinators provide connection between equal ideas.
(and, but, or, nor, so, for, yet)
Examples:
Subordinators provide connection between unequal ideas.
(because, although, when, while, if, as, since, whenever, wherever)
Example:
He didn’t go to work because he was sick.
Although John was unhappy, he still smiled.
Conjunctive Adverbs provide connection between large groups of ideas/sentences. (usually paragraphs)
(therefore, otherwise, thus, in conclusion, furthermore, on the other hand)
See also:
Punctuation: Commas and Periods
Conjunctions and Linking Words
For Practice: See
Connecting Words (from The Internet TESL Journal)
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