Conjunctions
What does FANBOYS stand for?
For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So
What are the relative pronouns?
Who, Whom, Whose, That and Which
This type of clause cannot stand alone as a sentence and relies on an independent clause for full meaning.
A Dependent Clause
An independent clause must have these two essential components to be considered a complete sentence.
Subject and Verb
This type of sentence is incomplete and lacks either a subject, a verb, or both.
A Fragment
What does AAAWWUBBIS stand for?
As, Although, After, While, When, Until, Because, Before, If, and Since.
This relative pronoun can refer to both people and things, often used in formal writing, as in "The team ___ won the championship was undefeated."
Which
A dependent clause often begins with one of these words, such as "because," "although," or "since."
Subordinating Conjunctions
This type of clause can stand alone as a complete sentence because it expresses a full thought.
Independent Clause
This punctuation mark, when used alone between two independent clauses, can result in a run-on sentence.
A comma
How can you fix a fragment?
Add a coordinating conjuction.
This type of clause, often introduced by "who" or "that," modifies a noun by giving more information about it, as in "The dog ___ barked all night belongs to my neighbor."
relative clause
A dependent clause can act as this part of speech, like "I don’t know what he wants."
Noun
Two independent clauses can be connected by a coordinating conjunction, such as "but" or "and," along with this punctuation.
A comma
This is one way to fix a run-on sentence, where a conjunction like "and," "but," or "so" is added between the two independent clauses.
A conjunction
This coordinating conjunction is often used to show contrast between two ideas, as in "I wanted to go, ___ I didn’t have time.
But
This relative pronoun is used to show possession in a relative clause, as in "The artist ___ paintings are famous lives nearby."
Whose
This type of dependent clause modifies a noun and often begins with a relative pronoun like "who," "whom," or "which."
Relative Clause
This punctuation mark can join two closely related independent clauses without using a conjunction.
A semi-colon
A run-on sentence can be corrected by breaking it into two independent clauses, which should each end with this type of punctuation.
A period
In the sentence "She can stay here, ___ she can leave early," this coordinating conjunction offers a choice between two options.
Or
A relative clause that can be removed without changing the fundamental meaning of a sentence is called this, and it's often set off by commas.
An appositive
When a sentence starts with a dependent clause, it is usually followed by this punctuation mark before the independent clause.
Comma
Two or more independent clauses joined together without proper punctuation or conjunctions form this common grammatical error.
A run-on
This type of error occurs when a dependent clause is mistakenly treated as a complete sentence, often starting with words like "because" or "although."
Fragment