Welcome back to Learn Academic English in today's
video I'm going to talk about subordinating conjunctions which is another type of important
conjunction that can help you to write English sentences correctly and take your writing to
the next level this video is part of a series of videos that I have on my channel all about
how to write sentences correctly in English in this series I'm talking about all types of
conjunctions punctuation rules how to make your sentences longer and more interesting and these
tips are very helpful for you if you're hoping to take the toefl or ielts test if you are
in school and taking English classes if you need to write in English for school or work
or if you just want to improve your English so in today's video we're talking about subordinating
conjunctions and if you are not familiar with what a dependent clause is you may want to go back
and watch that first video in this series what is the difference between an independent and a
dependent clause but I'll review it quickly right now so when we use a subordinating
conjunction a word like if or because we make what is called a dependent clause the
abbreviation is dc and the reason for that is that when we use one of these conjunctions
the sentence cannot be alone it becomes dependent on another part of the sentence for
example when the pandemic is over so this is a clause because there's a subject and a verb
but we have this subordinating conjunction when and when we use this word it becomes a dependent
clause because the meaning is not complete if I say to you “when the pandemic is over”
you're going to think what what will happen the meaning is not complete so what happens here
is that when we have a dependent clause with a subordinating conjunction then we can do two
things we can add a comma and then a second clause so I'm gonna put that right here we're gonna add a
comma and then a second clause and when we do that we make a long sentence with two clauses and this
is called a complex sentence a complex sentence now the other way that we can do it is that
we can flip the order of these clauses so we put the independent clause first for example when
the pandemic is over I will be happy so I will be happy subject I verb will be so we can move that
to the front we can say I will be happy when the pandemic is over and if we do that there's no
comma here now there are a few exceptions to that and I'll talk about that in a moment so again
complex sentence with two clauses and we have two possible orders so let's look at the different
types of subordinating conjunctions first and then I'll show you some examples the first type
is to show contrast although even though though while and whereas so let's talk about these a
little bit first of all although and even though what do they mean they show contrast so they're
very similar to the words but or however and you can use either of them they have exactly the same
meaning notice that even though is two words while although is one word you can also say though but
this is not as common so I don't really recommend it but sometimes you can see it and if you're
really struggling to add more variety to your vocabulary you can use it but it's just not common
okay while and whereas so you know the word while usually you think of that as referring to time but
this meaning of while is different this meaning actually shows contrast and it has the same
meaning as whereas which also shows contrast like but now one thing I wanted to mention is
that these two words are an exception because we always use a comma before them and so that's
one thing that you're going to need to remember that if you put while something here
you're going to put a comma before it in addition sometimes you can see commas being
used before although and even though but usually this is more for these words that there's this
exception that we always put a comma first okay the next type is condition and
we have words like if even if unless or when so sometimes you think that when is
talking about time but it also can be a condition for example when I have enough money I will
buy a car okay next reason because and since now these words have exactly the same
meaning they show a reason and again you might think of since as talking about
time but in this case it's showing reason so if you use because a lot maybe you want to mix
it up and try using since sometimes and finally the other category is time and we have a lot of
these after before as soon as until as long as when while whenever and there are even more so
let's take a look at some examples of how we can use these to make correct sentences but as
you're thinking about subordinating conjunctions you want to know these very common ones and
think of them as having these four categories that they can show contrast which is a different
idea they can show a condition they can show a reason or they can show time so let's take a
quick look at some examples with subordinating conjunctions and remember the formula we're
going to have dependent clause comma independent clause or independent clause dependent clause no
comma all of these sentences are about the covid pandemic first Even though the Covid pandemic has
been terrible, there are reasons for optimism. so notice the formula it's this one the dependent
clause is the first one it starts with even though and that's a dependent clause because we can't
have this as a sentence we can't say even though the pandemic has been terrible that's not
a complete thought so we need to connect it to an independent clause that has a subject and
verb notice here that we're going to use a comma after the dependent clause so think that this
sentence has two parts it has this first part that's the dependent clause and it has the second
part and we're going to join them together next the u.s has suffered a lot while australia
has done well now here why did I put a comma in the middle when it's following this formula
so this is the dependent clause here because it starts with the conjunction while the reason
I put a comma here is because while and whereas take commas they are exceptions remember what
does while show it shows contrast and see these are different situations the U.S. has suffered
Australia has done well those are two different situations so I'm going to use the word while or
whereas okay next If treatments become available, we can relax more. so here's a conditional
we have our dependent clause first with if we're going to put a comma at the end and then
our independent clause with subject and verb next Most people are getting vaccinated because
the vaccines prevent severe illness. so which formula are we using here we're using
independent clause first with the subject and verb and then we have our subordinating conjunction
because and then we have the next clause with subject and verb and think that this sentence
has two parts independent clause dependent clause why is this a dependent clause because when we
add the word because it's not a complete thought we need the second clause to finish our idea and
finally As long as covid is spreading locally, people will continue to wear masks. so this
shows time that this will happen as long as covid is spreading locally now remember that
for all of these we can use either order so if we wanted to we could flip the order and we could
start with the independent clause and it would use this order There are reasons for optimism even
though the covid pandemic has been terrible. and we can do that for all of these I tried to use
both orders so that you can see them okay let's take a quick look at what some common mistakes
are so first one common mistake is using the wrong conjunction so just be sure that you know
the meaning of the different conjunctions and you use the correct one these are very important words
in the sentence they show a lot of meaning and you just want to make sure that you're using the right
one or else the other person will get confused next another mistake is forgetting to use the
comma so at the end of the dependent clause we have to put our comma if you forget the comma
then it's a run on it's not clear so don't forget to put that comma at the end of the dependent
clause if you're using this order next another common mistake is using FANBOYS too so what
are FANBOYS I have a video about those those are coordinating conjunctions like and but and so
so let me show you what this mistake looks like this mistake looks like if someone puts the word
but here even though the covid pandemic has been terrible but there are reasons for optimism
it's not possible to use both conjunctions they show the same meaning so you can only use one
and these are different types of conjunctions so you can't use them together this is subordinating
this is coordinating you can't use them together so you can either use even though put a comma
and take but out or you can take even though out and you would have a compound sentence okay next
a fragment so what is a fragment a fragment is a piece of a sentence again I have a video about
fragments but a very common mistake is using the dependent clause as a sentence so that would be if
we put a period at the end of the dependent clause remember I told you that dependent clauses don't
show a complete thought so they cannot be alone another example would be if treatments become
available period that's a mistake because this does not show a complete thought it cannot be a
sentence by itself okay next using the wrong verb tense so there's a rule that you should know that
if you are talking about a conditional situation or a situation where you have a dependent clause
and then a future the first clause is always in the simple present so let's look at this one if
treatments become available we can relax more we don't use future here we cannot say if
treatments will become available that's a rule that you just need to remember that we always use
simple present for this first clause not future and finally using a comma before because in some
languages you always put a comma before because but in English the grammar rule tells us not
to do so so we don't put a comma before because sometimes you can see it but the
rule tells us not to put a comma here so I hope this was helpful for you it was a lot
of information and I'll be making more videos that will go into some more specifics or
details about these words in the future if you have questions please let me know and don't
forget to practice with me below in the comments and give this video a like if you found it helpful
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and your grammar take care and see you soon!