For example, “Mom makes me breakfast before school. ” In this example, “mom” is the subject and “makes” is the verb. It also forms a complete thought or sentence.
For example, “I don’t have enough time to eat it. ” This independent clause closely relates to the first clause you wrote and contains both a subject, “I” and a verb, “have. ” The nature of the relation will determine which coordinating conjunction is used to connect the two thoughts. For instance, if the second thought follows the first thought chronologically, the word “and” is used to connect the two thoughts. If the second thought contradicts the first thought, the word “but” is used to connect the two thoughts.
Coordinating conjunctions include: and, but, yet, nor, or, for, so. One of the easiest ways to remember the coordinating conjunctions is to form an acronym. The most commonly used acronym is: FANBOYS (F-for, A-and, N-nor, B-but, O-or, Y-yet, S-so). [3] X Research source For example, “Mom makes me breakfast before school, but I don’t have enough time to eat it. ”
For example, “I want to play with my friends, but I have to finish my homework first. ” Make the beginning of the second independent clause lowercase. Now that you have both a coordinating conjunction and a comma in place, you need to make the first letter of your second independent clause lowercase. In the above example, you would need to keep the “I” capitalized as it is a proper pronoun. However, another example would be, “I want to go to the park by myself, but my little sister wants to come with me. ” In this case, the “m” in “my” was capitalized when it was a standalone independent clause: “My little sister wants to come with me. ” Now that it’s part of a compound sentence, connected by a comma and a coordinating conjunction, the “m” is lowercase.
For example, “She loves swimming, and she also loves soccer. ”
For example, “Because she grew up playing multiple sports” isn’t a complete sentence.
For example, “Because she grew up playing multiple sports, she loves swimming, and she also loves soccer. ”
For example, “Jack would rather be fishing, but he…”
For example, “Jack would rather be fishing, he’s at work. ” This is incorrect, as a coordinating conjunction wasn’t used. The two independent clauses should have been formed into two complete sentences using a period. “Jack would rather be fishing. ” “He’s at work. ” Another option is to use a semicolon: “Jack would rather be fishing; he’s at work. " You could also use a coordinating conjunction: “Jack would rather be fishing, but he’s at work. "
For example, “Because I am always hungry in the morning, mom makes me breakfast before school, but I don’t have enough time to eat it. ” You would not use a comma if the complex compound sentence was, “Mom makes me breakfast before school, but I don’t have enough time to eat it because I don’t wake up early enough. ”
