Coordinating Conjunctions

                                   Coordinating Conjunctions

When most people think of conjunctions, they are usually thinking of the coordinating variety. The most common ones include and, but, or, and so. Coordinating conjunctions join words or groups of words that are equal in rank grammatically. For instance, in the following sentence the two nouns are separated with a coordinating conjunction.

Kristy served tea and cake.

However, as mentioned above they can also join entire phrases and sentences as in the following examples.

Andrew picked up the ball and tossed it to his older brother.

Jen enjoys a brisk jog in the park, but Linda prefers a quiet walk in the woods.

In these sentences, the conjunctions either join two predicates or two independent clauses. Keep in mind that when you use a conjunction to join two independent clauses, insert a comma between the first clause and the conjunction.