Recognise Subordinating Conjunctions

Conjunctions are used to join two or more words, clauses or phrases together.

Subordinating conjunctions are used to join a main clause with a subordinate clause - this is a clause that wouldn’t make sense on its own.

When we join a main clause and a subordinate clause, we make a complex sentence.

Pretty cool, hey?

The most common subordinating conjunctions are:

If

Since

As

When

Although

While

After

Before

Until

Because

Let’s look at one together.
 

The magician gave the boy a balloon, after he smiled.

The first part, is the main clause ‘The magician gave the boy a balloon.’ This could be a sentence on its own.

Then we add ‘after he smiled’.

This cannot be a sentence on its own because it does not make sense without any extra information (context).

We could try another:

The magician gave the boy a balloon, because he was crying.

‘because he was crying’ does not make sense on its own but it has the power to change the whole sentence!

Can you choose a subordinating conjunction and use it to create a subordinate clause?

How about this one?

The magician gave the boy a balloon, when he guessed the right answer!

You could try all sorts of things! As long as you use one of our special words, we can extend our ideas and add lots more detail.

In this activity, we will start recognising subordinating conjunctions and try matching some sentences together!