Spanish Grammar in Context

A reference grammar with video examples from the Spanish in Texas collection

  • Credits
  • Index
  • About
  • Home
  • Adjectives
    • Introduction to Adjectives
    • Adjectives – Formation and Placement
    • Comparisons and Superlatives with Adjectives
    • Past Participles as Adjectives
    • Todo
    • Indefinite Adjectives
    • Adjectives Practice
  • Adverbs
    • Introduction to Adverbs
    • Adverbs – Formation and Placement
    • Comparative Adverbs
    • Adverbs Practice
  • Conjunctions
    • Introduction to Conjunctions
    • Coordinating Conjunctions
    • Subordinating Conjunctions
    • Conjunctions Practice
  • Determiners
    • Introduction to Determiners
    • Definite Articles
    • Indefinite Articles
    • Possessive Determiners
    • Demonstrative Determiners
    • Expressions of Quantity
    • Determiners Practice
  • Negation
    • Introduction to Negation
    • Basic Negation: No
    • Alternate Forms of Negation
    • One-word Negative Sentences
    • Negation Practice
  • Nouns
    • Introduction to Nouns
    • Nouns – Number
    • Nouns – Gender
    • Nouns Practice
  • Prepositions
    • Introduction to Prepositions
    • Common Prepositions
    • Por vs. Para
    • Prepositions Practice
  • Pronouns
    • Introduction to Pronouns
    • Subject Pronouns
    • Direct Object Pronouns
    • Indirect Object Pronouns
    • Reflexive Pronouns
    • Order of Object Pronouns
    • Relative Pronouns
    • Indefinite Pronouns
    • Demonstrative Pronouns
    • Possessive Pronouns
    • Pronouns Practice
  • Verbs
    • Introduction to Verbs
    • Tense/Mood
    • Introduction to Present Tense
      • -ar Verbs (Regular) Present Tense
      • -er Verbs (Regular) Present Tense
      • -ir Verbs (Regular) Present Tense
    • Ser “To Be”
    • Haber “To Have”
    • Reflexive Verbs
    • Preterit
    • Present Perfect
    • Imperfect
    • Narration: Preterit vs. Imperfect
    • Pluperfect
    • Future
    • Conditional
    • Past Conditional
    • Imperative Mood (commands)
    • Introduction to Subjunctive
      • Subjunctive – Present
      • Subjunctive – Past or Imperfect
      • Subjunctive – Present Perfect
      • Subjunctive – Pluperfect
      • Tense Sequences
    • Si Clauses (If Clauses)
    • Indirect Speech
      • Indirect Speech – Present
      • Indirect Speech – Past
    • Passive Voice
    • Language Contact
    • Verbs Practice
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Practice quizzes: conjunctions

Introduction to Conjunctions

conjunctions

Conjunctions from the Spanish in Texas Corpus

A conjunction is a word used to link or conjoin words or phrases into a coherent whole. There are two classes of conjunctions: coordinate and subordinate.

Coordinating Conjunctions

A coordinating conjunction coordinates two equivalent elements in a sentence, that is, words belonging to the same grammatical category (nouns + nouns, verbs + verbs, independent clause + independent clause, etc.). The most commonly used coordinating conjunctions in Spanish are:

pero but
o or
y and
entonces so, thus
ni … ni neither … nor
pues then

Le fui y le dije a mi papá que yo quería seguir estudiando y, entonces, él me dijo que no.
I went and told my dad that I wanted to keep studying and then he told me no.

No hablan palabras exactas ni inglés ni español.
They don’t use exact words neither English nor Spanish.

Subordinating Conjunctions

A subordinating conjunction links an independent clause to a dependent clause. In other words, a subordinating conjunction joins two unequivalent clauses (independent and dependent). An independent clause is any clause that can stand alone to form a grammatical sentence. A dependent clause, on the other hand, cannot stand alone and thus depends on the main clause in order to form a complete thought.

The several commonly used subordinate conjunctions are:

que that
mientras as, while
cuando when
donde where
desde que since (indicating time)
mientras que while, whereas
como since
porque because
apenas as soon as

Uno aprende a ser padre o madre, mientras uno va caminando.
One learns to be a dad or mom as one goes.

Apenas veo que alguien está más a gusto a hablar en español, cuando estoy en el trabajo, es lo que hablo.
As soon as I see that someone is more comfortable speaking in Spanish, when I am at my job, that’s what I speak.

COERLL • The University of Texas at Austin • info@coerll.utexas.edu Creative Commons License

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