Coordinating Conjunctions Made Simple with FANBOYS!

Are you looking to teach your children coordinating conjunctions, and they don’t seem to grasp the topic? Don’t worry,  FANBOYS are here to rescue. Teach kids with fun and colourful resources, which will explain everything in detail.

I highly recommend that you show the attached YouTube video to children to make them understand the topic in detail. (Free worksheets and poster attached)

What is a conjunction?

A conjunction is a part of speech that enables us to gracefully connect two words, sentences, phrases or clauses together. We can also think of it as connectors.

Example:

1. She went to work, but she did not want to go.

Also read: What is a fronted adverbial?

Types of conjunctions:

There are three types of conjunctions.

1. Coordinating conjunctions
2. Subordinating Conjunctions
3. Correlative conjunctions

What are coordinating conjunctions?

Coordinative conjunction is used to connect parts of a sentence that are grammatically equal, showing that the elements it joins are similar in importance and structure. These are short, simple conjunctions. The seven coordinating conjunctions are:

for, and, nor, but, or,  yet, so

What are 7 Coordinating Conjunctions:

The best way to remember the seven coordinating conjunctions is by using the acronym FANBOYS.

1. F -> for
2. A -> and
3. N -> nor
4. B -> but
5. O – > or
6. Y -> yet
7. S -> so

What are the examples of coordinating conjunctions:

Coordinating conjunctions connects words, phrases and clauses of the same kind:

• two NOUNS 
  cats and cows
• two VERBS
  shouts or kicks
• two ADJECTIVES
  short and simple
• two ADVERBS
  quickly but carefully
• two INDEPENDENT CLAUSES
  Dylan writes better songs, but Britney Spears sells more records.

Download Co-ordinating conjunctions poster

With coordinating conjunctions, you need to remember 3 things:

• FANBOYS acronyms:  These can be easily remembered as the acronym FANBOYS: For-And-Nor-But-Or-Yet-So. Practice this at home with children by chanting the words. You can also help them by playing the flashcards matchup game.

Download, laminate and cut the flashcards and ask them to match up words with their acronyms.

• Meaning of different co-ordinating conjunctions with sentences:

Download Here

• Coma usage with coordinating conjunctions: The comma is inserted before the coordinating conjunction between two clauses. The comma tells the reader that one clause has finished and other clause had started.

          Example: She went to the supermarket, and she bought some apples.

Please note: Comma is not used when we connect two words or phrases.

           Example:  She ate cake and chocolate.

Can I start a sentence with a coordinating conjunction?

Most of the time the teachers tell you that its wrong to start the sentence with coordinating conjunction but its not true. You can start a sentence with coordinating conjunction but remember not to overdo it. Let us look at the example below to understand it.

1. As a result, the court found him guilty.
2. Ben was shouting in anger. But before Sam listened to his words, he slammed the door and stomped away.

A fun activity to do at home:

A very interesting activity to do with children is to write a compound sentence (A compound sentence is made up of two simple sentences, or words joined by a comma) on the strip. Cut it and give the children to assemble. This way children will learn how the sentence is constructed.

Show this YouTube video for more in-depth understanding:

Practice your skills with worksheets below:

Combine the following sentences with co-ordinating conjunction with answers.

Can you spot the conjunctions

Use the coordinating conjunctions in the sentences

I hope you enjoyed today blog. If you have any questions, please contact me. Thanks

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