Subordinating and Coordinating Conjunctions

Conjunctions: the Basics

Rule 1: A conjunction creates a logical connection between parts of sentences, whole sentences, or individual words. In French, conjunctions don't change the word order in the sentence.

Subordinating Conjunctions

Rule 2: Subordinating conjunctions connect main and subordinate (dependent) clauses in complex sentenses. Dependent clauses provide additional information (time, reason, purpose, ...) to the sentence - they can't stand alone as a sentence.

Here are a few subordinating conjunctions in French:

Coordinating Conjunctions

Rule 3: Coordinating conjunctions connect main (independent) clauses with one another without establishing a hierarchy. Independent clauses can form complete sentences and stand alone.

Here are the seven most common coordinating conjunctions in French:

To learn these coordinating conjunctions, you can use a simple mnemonic:

Mais où est donc Ornicar ? - mais ou est donc or ni car.