Welcome back to Learn Academic English in today's video I'm going to talk about subordinating
conjunctions which is another type of important conjunction that can help you to write English
sentences correctly and take your writing to the next level this video is part of a series
of videos that I have on my channel all about how to write sentences correctly in English
in this series I'm talking about all types of conjunctions punctuation rules how to make your
sentences longer and more interesting and these tips are very helpful for you if you're hoping to
take the toefl or ielts test if you are in school and taking English classes
if you need to write in English for school or work or if you just want to improve your English so in
today's video we're talking about subordinating conjunctions and if you are not familiar with
what a dependent clause is you may want to go back and watch that first video in this series what is
the difference between an independent and a dependent clause but I'll review it quickly
right now so when we use a subordinating conjunction a word like if or because
we make what is called a dependent clause the abbreviation is dc and the reason for that
is that when we use one of these conjunctions the sentence cannot be alone it becomes
dependent on another part of the sentence for example when the pandemic is over so this is
a clause because there's a subject and a verb but we have this subordinating conjunction when
and when we use this word it becomes a dependent clause because the meaning is not complete
if I say to you “when the pandemic is over” you're going to think what what will happen
the meaning is not complete so what happens here is that when we have a dependent clause with
a subordinating conjunction then we can do two things we can add a comma and then a second clause
so I'm gonna put that right here we're gonna add a comma and then a second clause and when we do that
we make a long sentence with two clauses and this is called a complex sentence a complex sentence
now the other way that we can do it is that we can flip the order of these clauses so we
put the independent clause first for example when the pandemic is over I will be happy so I will be
happy subject I verb will be so we can move that to the front we can say I will be happy when the
pandemic is over and if we do that there's no comma here now there are a few exceptions to
that and I'll talk about that in a moment so again complex sentence with two clauses and we have two
possible orders so let's look at the different types of subordinating conjunctions first and
then I'll show you some examples the first type is to show contrast although even though though
while and whereas so let's talk about these a little bit first of all although and even though
what do they mean they show contrast so they're very similar to the words but or however and you
can use either of them they have exactly the same meaning notice that even though is two words while
although is one word you can also say though but this is not as common so I don't really recommend
it but sometimes you can see it and if you're really struggling to add more variety to your
vocabulary you can use it but it's just not common okay while and whereas so you know the word while
usually you think of that as referring to time but this meaning of while is different this meaning
actually shows contrast and it has the same meaning as whereas which also shows contrast
like but now one thing I wanted to mention is that these two words are an exception because
we always use a comma before them and so that's one thing that you're going to need to remember
that if you put while something here you're going to put a comma before it
in addition sometimes you can see commas being used before although and even though but usually
this is more for these words that there's this exception that we always put a comma first
okay the next type is condition and we have words like if even if unless
or when so sometimes you think that when is talking about time but it also can be a condition
for example when I have enough money I will buy a car okay next reason because and since
now these words have exactly the same meaning they show a reason and again
you might think of since as talking about time but in this case it's showing reason
so if you use because a lot maybe you want to mix it up and try using since sometimes and finally
the other category is time and we have a lot of these after before as soon as until as long as
when while whenever and there are even more so let's take a look at some examples of how we
can use these to make correct sentences but as you're thinking about subordinating conjunctions
you want to know these very common ones and think of them as having these four categories
that they can show contrast which is a different idea they can show a condition they can show a
reason or they can show time so let's take a quick look at some examples with subordinating
conjunctions and remember the formula we're going to have dependent clause comma independent
clause or independent clause dependent clause no comma all of these sentences are about the covid
pandemic first Even though the Covid pandemic has been terrible, there are reasons for optimism.
so notice the formula it's this one the dependent clause is the first one it starts with even though
and that's a dependent clause because we can't have this as a sentence we can't say even though
the pandemic has been terrible that's not a complete thought so we need to connect it
to an independent clause that has a subject and verb notice here that we're going to use a comma
after the dependent clause so think that this sentence has two parts it has this first part
that's the dependent clause and it has the second part and we're going to join them together next
the u.s has suffered a lot while australia has done well now here why did I put a comma
in the middle when it's following this formula so this is the dependent clause here because
it starts with the conjunction while the reason I put a comma here is because while and whereas
take commas they are exceptions remember what does while show it shows contrast and see these
are different situations the U.S. has suffered Australia has done well those are two different
situations so I'm going to use the word while or whereas okay next If treatments become available,
we can relax more. so here's a conditional we have our dependent clause first with if
we're going to put a comma at the end and then our independent clause with subject and verb next
Most people are getting vaccinated because the vaccines prevent severe illness.
so which formula are we using here we're using independent clause first with the subject and verb
and then we have our subordinating conjunction because and then we have the next clause with
subject and verb and think that this sentence has two parts independent clause dependent clause
why is this a dependent clause because when we add the word because it's not a complete thought
we need the second clause to finish our idea and finally As long as covid is spreading locally,
people will continue to wear masks. so this shows time that this will happen as long as
covid is spreading locally now remember that for all of these we can use either order so if
we wanted to we could flip the order and we could start with the independent clause and it would use
this order There are reasons for optimism even though the covid pandemic has been terrible.
and we can do that for all of these I tried to use both orders so that you can see them okay let's
take a quick look at what some common mistakes are so first one common mistake is using the
wrong conjunction so just be sure that you know the meaning of the different conjunctions and you
use the correct one these are very important words in the sentence they show a lot of meaning and you
just want to make sure that you're using the right one or else the other person will get confused
next another mistake is forgetting to use the comma so at the end of the dependent clause
we have to put our comma if you forget the comma then it's a run on it's not clear so don't forget
to put that comma at the end of the dependent clause if you're using this order next another
common mistake is using FANBOYS too so what are FANBOYS I have a video about those those
are coordinating conjunctions like and but and so so let me show you what this mistake looks like
this mistake looks like if someone puts the word but here even though the covid pandemic has been
terrible but there are reasons for optimism it's not possible to use both conjunctions
they show the same meaning so you can only use one and these are different types of conjunctions so
you can't use them together this is subordinating this is coordinating you can't use them together
so you can either use even though put a comma and take but out or you can take even though out
and you would have a compound sentence okay next a fragment so what is a fragment a fragment is
a piece of a sentence again I have a video about fragments but a very common mistake is using the
dependent clause as a sentence so that would be if we put a period at the end of the dependent clause
remember I told you that dependent clauses don't show a complete thought so they cannot be alone
another example would be if treatments become available period that's a mistake because this
does not show a complete thought it cannot be a sentence by itself okay next using the wrong verb
tense so there's a rule that you should know that if you are talking about a conditional situation
or a situation where you have a dependent clause and then a future the first clause is always in
the simple present so let's look at this one if treatments become available we can relax more
we don't use future here we cannot say if treatments will become available that's a rule
that you just need to remember that we always use simple present for this first clause not future
and finally using a comma before because in some languages you always put a comma before because
but in English the grammar rule tells us not to do so so we don't put a comma before because
sometimes you can see it but the rule tells us not to put a comma here
so I hope this was helpful for you it was a lot of information and I'll be making more videos
that will go into some more specifics or details about these words in the future if
you have questions please let me know and don't forget to practice with me below in the comments
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like this to help you improve your writing and your grammar take care and see you soon!