Question:
I'm a tech guy in a school in Houston and was working on some computers
in a high school English class today.
The teacher started explaining run-on sentences and stated the only
conjunctions are and, nor, but, and or.
I remembered the acronym FANBOYS from my high school days, and asked
about for, yet, and so. She said, "No, they are not conjuctions. 'For'
is a preposition and 'yet' and 'so' are adverbs."
I maintained that while they may be used as those parts of speech, they
are still conjunctions.
Is there a more restrictive definition of conjunction that I am not
aware of that excludes these thre words?
Answer:
No, not to my knowledge; but by my old-fashioned grammar you can
classify conjunctions as coordinating or subordinating (there can
also be subdivisions if necessary).
Coordinating conjunctions connect sentences of equal rank: the ones
she mentioned (_and, but, or, nor_) are examples, but not the only
ones. Subordinating ones connect the main sentence to one which
depends on it, like _if, because, when, how_ and many others.
I'm afraid Teacher is wrong this time, and you are right. Be tactful!
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