FANBOYS

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The letter sequence FANBOYS is commonly taught in North America as a mnemonic for the coordinating conjunctions, which are used to join two independent clauses: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, and so.

In fact, of FANBOYS, only and, but, and or are prototypical coordinating conjunctions, while nor is close. So and yet share more properties with conjunctive adverbs (e.g., however), and "for...lack(s) most of the properties distinguishing prototypical coordinators from prepositions with clausal complements." ^[1]

Furthermore, there are other ways to coordinate independent clauses in English. For example:

1. She means what she says as well as says what she means.
2. He was lazy, plus he smoked.
3. I had hoped to see her, only she wasn’t home.
4. The work was rigorous and brutal, such that many people were injured.
5. First select a file, then click OK.

[edit] External Links

• Explanation of the use of coordinating conjunctions from the NMSU Writing Center.

[edit] Reference

1. ^ p. 1321, Huddleston, R. Payne, J. & Peterson, P. (2002). Coordination and supplementation. Pp. 1273-1362. In Huddleston, R. & Pullum, G. K. The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.