Conjunctions or las conjunciones are linking words which join two phrases, ideas or sentences. These sentences should be of equal value. There are also subordinate conjunctions which are used in subordinate clauses which means that they join two sentences which can’t be separated because they are inconclusive.
There are hundreds of ways to connect two words or phrases and the conjunctions are the most used in English and Spanish. Using conjunctions will improve your speaking and writing skills since you’ll enrich your speech with longer sentences rather than repetitive and short ones.
In the English language, the conjunctions are and, but, or, if, because, so, among others. They’re used all the time in everyday conversations to add information, express a contrast or introduce explanations.
The most widely used conjunctions in Spanish are y which means and, o which is translated as or, pero or but, porque or because and si or if.
Y is used to join two sentences to add information. In this case both phrases or sentences are at the same level. If the second word or sentence starts with the letter i or the syllable hi you simply join them using e which plays the same role as Y.
O which is translated as or is a conjunction to give an alternative among different options. As in the case of the Y conjunction, u is used instead of o when the following words starts with the vowel o or ho.
But in spanish is pero, it’s used to express contrast. However, after negative sentences you simply use sino que which is another way to express contrast.
Porque means because and it’s a conjunction to express a reason. Be careful, since if you split this word in two you get por que which means why.
Si is a conjunction which means if. It ‘s used as a conditional.
