Coordinating Conjunctions

What They Do:

• Used to join words and/or phrases

Find the FANBOYS

• The bowl of squid eyeball stew is hot and delicious.

FIND THE FANBOYS

• The squid eyeball stew is so thick that you can eat it with a fork or spoon.
• My cat refuses to eat dry cat food, nor will he touch a saucer of squid eyeball stew.

FIND THE FANBOYS

• Rocky, my ugly cat, terrorizes the poodles next door yet adores the German shepherd across the street.

FIND THE FANBOYS

• Even though I added cream to the squid eyeball stew, my ugly dog ignored his serving, so I got a spoon and ate it myself.

HOW DO I USE THEM?

• When you connect two main clauses with a coordinating conjunction, use a comma. The pattern looks like this:
• Main Clause + , + Coordinating Conjunction + Main Clause.
• Her dog naps in the dishwasher, and his cat naps in the closet.

Use to Connect Two Items:

• These items can be any grammatical units. The pattern looks like this:
• Item + CC + Item
• My cat sleeps in the closet at night and in the sink all day.

Connect 3 or More Items:

• When you have three or more items in a series, you generally use a comma before the coordinating conjunction.
• Item + , + , +, CC + Item.
• My cat hates dogs, bunnies, babies, and me.

Can I start a sentence with a CC?

• Officially, there’s no grammar rule that says you cannot; logically, however, it just doesn’t make sense. A sentence ENDS with a period. If you are starting the following sentence with a coordinating conjunction, what two things are you joining?