ShmoopTube

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[Coop and Dino singing]

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The modern world is all about connections...

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Roads connecting cities... [A busy road filled with cars]

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Telephones connecting people...

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Weird iPhone apps connecting people to their secret desire to have the ears and tongue of a dog... [Girl taking a selfie]

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Yup.

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Connections are everywhere.

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Another thing that gets connected all the time?

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Words.

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But not through some cool Snapchat filter. [Girl using a snapchat filter]

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Nah, words use conjunctions!

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Conjunctions are “connecting words” because they're word that, well, connect other words

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together.

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But enough with the explaining – let's see some examples! [Dino giving conjunction examples]

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But. And. Or. Not. For. So. Yet.

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Conjunctions can connect two words together...

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Like “Chocolate and vanilla.” [Boy holding an ice cream]

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As well as two independent clauses or ideas together...

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Like, “I see the glass as half full, COMMA BUT you see the glass as half empty.” [Two people looking at a glass]

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But guess what?

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There are actually special types of conjunctions, too.

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Like correlative conjunctions, which are conjunctions that show up in pairs.

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This includes conjunctions like “either” or “neither,” which suggest that one thing

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doesn't exist without the other. [Man holding hot pizza slice and it turns to a blue slice]

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For example, we might say to our pesky sibling, “Either you leave me alone or I tell mom

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you're being a butt.”

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Of course, we'd never say that. [Little brother pestering older sister]

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We're civilized.

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We'd say they're being a buttocks.

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Another type of conjunction is a subordinating conjunction, which shows how one element of

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a sentence is related to another.

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Subordinating conjunctions include words like as if, before, how, if, because, unless, and

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until.

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For example, “Because I was hungry, I ate the cold pizza.” [Hand takes slice of cold pizza out of a fridge]

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Which…wow.

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What a noble act.

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Someone give that guy a medal. [Guy given a medal]

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As you've probably guessed, there are a whole lot of different types of conjunctions – but

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they all serve the same purpose: to connect the different words and ideas in a sentence

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in order to keep it making sense.

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And if you disagree with that, then you're just being a stubborn buttocks. [Girl chasing little brother]

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So civilized.

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Time to take tea in the garden! [Man drinking tea in the garden]

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