How to check if a conjunction is co-ordinate or subordinate?

Conjunctions are words or a group of words that we use day to day in our conversations to join two words, phrases, or clauses, but have you ever been befuddled trying to categorise such conjunctions into subordinate and coordinate types? This leads us to the question, what are coordinate and subordinate conjunctions? Coordinating conjunctions, as their name suggests, coordinate or synchronise two or more similar ideas. However, subordinate conjunctions, as their name suggests, join two sentences of different ranks, one of which provides the main idea and an additional subordinate one which gives more information about the main idea, yet it cannot stand independently.

To understand coordinate and subordinate conjunctions, we need to have a clear idea of what coordinate and subordinate clauses mean. As we know, clauses are groups of words that consist of a subject and a predicate, but unlike sentences, they do not always convey a complete idea or a thought. Some clauses are independent and can stand alone; others are dependent and require another independent clause to form a meaningful sentence. For example, “When I reached home” is a clause that gives us an idea, however, it is not complete. Something that seems to be missing is the independent clause on which such a dependent clause relies. The clause begs the question, “ What happened when I reached home?”. This can be answered with the addition of an independent clause, for example: “I saw my dog waiting by the door, when I reached home.” Some clauses are independent and can stand alone, for example, “I reached home” or “I saw my dog”. To make it easier to comprehend, we can take a look at these hierarchies showing how subordinate and coordinate clauses work:

Principal clause and subordinate clause hierarchy | Created by: Indira Bishui

Principal coordinate clauses and subordinate clause hierarchy | Created by: Indira Bishui

This hierarchy shows that coordinate clauses are those that are of the same rank and can thus be added with coordinating conjunctions. Whereas subordinate clauses come below principal clauses in the hierarchy and can thus be conjugated only using subordinate conjunctions.

Interestingly, there is a simple rule to follow to identify coordinating conjunctions. It is by using the FANBOYS template. FANBOYS refer to “for”, “and”, “nor”, “but”, “or”, “yet” and “so”. These conjunctions are used to join two principal or independent clauses that are of the same rank.

For example:

• I stayed home, for I was sick. [Joining the independent clauses: I stayed home. I was sick.]
• Tony flew to New York, and attended the conference. [Joining the independent clauses: Tony flew to New York. Tony attended the conference.]

It must be noted that before the conjunction and the end of the first clause, a comma: “,” should be added.

All other conjunctions can be considered to be subordinating conjunctions. For example: that, which, when, although, because, if, so that, and many more.

For example:

• Although he is rich, he is not content.
• If I went to play now, I won’t be able to finish my homework.

It must be noted here too, the clauses are separated by a comma: “,”.

It can be wrapped up by saying that coordinate conjunctions are used to join two clauses of the same rank, whereas subordinate clauses are used to create a hierarchy between two clauses — a main clause and one or more dependent ones.