Hi everyone and welcome back to Learn Academic English in today's video I'm continuing my series
on how to write correct sentences in English in the last couple videos I talked about what
independent and dependent clauses are and I talked about fragments which are a piece of a sentence
a common error when writing in English today I'm going to talk about coordinating conjunctions
and what are called compound sentences so compound sentences are usually the second type of sentence
that we learn how to write the first type of sentence that we learn is called a simple sentence
a simple sentence is an independent clause in other words an independent clause has a subject
and verb for example I was born and raised in the United States here we have one subject and we have
a verb was born and we also have the second verb raised but we have one subject so that's a simple
sentence it's one independent clause a compound sentence is when we take two of those simple
sentences and we put them together so a compound sentence the formula is IC that's independent
clause meaning that there's a subject and verb comma coordinating conjunction and IC so we have
two independent clauses and we join them together with a comma and a coordinating conjunction
this is a very common and pretty easy type of sentence but it's extremely useful because first
of all we use them all the time but also because you can express many different meanings with these
special conjunctions for example we can say I was born in the U.S., and I live in California so you
can see here that we have subject verb and we have subject verb so we have independent clause
independent clause and then we have a comma and in the second one we can say I was born in the U.S.
now I'm going to show you a different punctuation here we can use a semicolon to combine those two
sentences and then we have our second independent clause this one is not as common and it's also not
as good and I'll explain why in a moment but this is another possibility that instead of the comma
and the conjunction you can just use a semicolon to combine those two independent clauses so before
I show you more examples I want to talk about the coordinating conjunctions the coordinating
conjunctions there are seven of them and we also call them FANBOYS FANBOYS FANBOYS stands for for
and nor but or yet and so those are the seven coordinating conjunctions and again you want to
remember the formula that we have independent clause comma coordinating conjunction and then
independent clause period so let's take a quick look at those 4 this meaning of 4 means because
it's not like this is for you that's a different meaning and and and shows another idea
nor which means also not it's like a negative and but but shows contrast so it shows ideas
that are different or an idea that's unexpected or shows a choice or a warning so this or has
two possibilities or two meanings yet yet shows an unexpected contrast so it's like but but it
shows something that's more unexpected and finally we have so which shows a result or that's why
now I have an asterisk next to the ones that are the most common so and but or and so are the
most common ones we also use yet nor not very often and for we hardly ever use this word in
this meaning so if you want to remember the most important ones you want to remember these four
and then maybe also yet okay let's take a look at some examples of sentences with all of these
conjunctions and then I'll show you a few small rules that you need to remember when you use
these conjunctions let's take a look at some examples with these coordinating conjunctions all
of the examples I'm going to show you today are related to the topic of doing volunteer work first
I'm gonna show you a sentence with for I want to do volunteer work, for I love meeting new people.
so here you can see that for shows the meaning of because it shows the reason as I mentioned before
we hardly ever use for in this way so it's not one that you probably need to worry about too much
next and I used to do volunteer work every weekend, and I want to start doing that
again. so notice here that and is joining two independent clauses each independent clause has
a subject and a verb next nor I don't have a lot of time for volunteering, nor does my family. so
this is not very common but it is a possible construction with nor we're to flip the order
of the subject and the verb but the verb we have to insert the helping verb nor does my family but
I love working with animals, but I will probably work with refugees.
so here it's showing a contrast because I love working with animals but I will probably work with
refugees next or I could help them with English lessons, or I might help them with paperwork. so
here we have a choice I'm not going to do both of them so I'm saying a choice I could choose one or
the other now we can also use or to show a warning and how this works is that we have two clauses and
in the first clause we say a situation and then in the second clause we express what will happen if
that first situation does not happen for example I can't take on too many hours, or I will get too
busy. so if the first situation doesn't happen then what is the problem the problem is I will get
too busy a very common one would be like this make sure you wear a coat, or you will get too cold.
okay the next one is yet which shows an unexpected contrast Doing volunteer work feels so good,
yet we rarely make the time for it. and finally so which shows a result or
that's why I'd like to volunteer with a friend, so I'm going to let my friends know.
all of these examples are pretty easy and casual sentences we use coordinating conjunctions in both
casual conversation but also in formal writing they are a very important tool in formal writing
so the writing that you would use in school and work to help you add variety to your sentences
and when we teach English in the college level we always make sure that our students know that they
can use coordinating conjunctions to help them write different types of sentences and to express
all of these very important meanings there are a few other small rules that you want to know
first when you have two clauses you can actually take the subject out of the second clause if the
subject is the same person and when that happens it becomes a simple sentence and we use no comma
let me show you an example I used to volunteer every weekend and want to start doing it again.
so notice here that I have I as the subject in both clauses I can take the subject out of
the second clause this actually makes the sentence more concise this is a good idea
to do sometimes but when I do that we no longer have the IC comma conjunction IC pattern instead
this clause is not an independent clause anymore it becomes one simple sentence
one independent clause with one subject and two verbs I used to volunteer every weekend
and want to start doing it again the second thing I want to tell you is that when we have two
very short independent clauses we sometimes will skip the comma for example I work from home and he
does too or I teach English and he teaches Spanish those are pretty short independent
clauses and sometimes we will just skip the comma next remember I told you that you can join two
independent clauses with a semicolon well that is true but I wanted you to know that this is not as
effective and the reason for that is that when you use a semicolon to join two independent clauses
the meaning of the conjunction is missing we sometimes will do this if the meaning or the
relationship between the two clauses is very obvious and that's usually for and for the
other ones if we use a semicolon in the middle it doesn't show the meaning of the conjunction
and therefore it's not as effective and finally different styles of writing you know that there is
writing for different purposes we do writing for work we do writing for school we do writing for
creative writing we do writing for newspapers or magazines and those all have different styles
what I want you to know is that in some styles of writing you can see this pattern where you have a
period at the end of the first independent clause and then the coordinating conjunction actually
begins the next independent clause but we do not use this in school for academic writing we should
use the form that I showed you before where we have a comma and the coordinating conjunction
to make one compound sentence so as always I will have a practice in the comments and
the description below and I would love for you to practice with me make sure that you
come back for the other videos in this series I'm going to talk about adverbial conjunctions
subordinating conjunctions making longer sentences and all kinds of other tips to
help you write sentences correctly and add more variety to your writing take care and I'll see