40 Practice Activities: Conjunctions
Coordinating Conjunctions
In this practice, you will combine multiple sentences into a single sentence. For example, look at the sentences “Clint was very skilled at his job. Wade was very skilled at his job.” You would combine these two sentences into something like this, using coordinating conjunctions:
- Clint and Wade were both very skilled at their jobs.
- Clint was very skilled at his job, and Wade was too.
When you combine sentences, you can remove repeated information. As you complete this exercise, type your answers in the text frame below.
- Wade was really impressed by Clint. Wade was anxious about working with him.
- Clint thought Wade was annoying. Clint thought Wade was unpredictable. Clint thought Wade was possibly dangerous.
- In the end, Clint worked well with Wade. In the end, Wade worked well with Clint.
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Show Answer
While there are several possible answers, let’s walk through a couple of options for each item.
- In this first item, both sentences have the same subject: Wade. Since they have the same subject, we can turn these two sentences into a single sentence with two verbs. Since the ideas present a contrast, the conjunction but is a good choice for this sentence:
- Wade was really impressed by Clint but was anxious about working with him.
- Wade was really impressed by Clint, but he was anxious about working with Clint.
- All three of the sentences in this item have the same subject and verb. We can combine them together by joining these three similar items:
- Clint thought Wade was annoying, unpredictable, and possibly dangerous.
- This last item is a little trickier. While the two sentences are very similar, they have different subjects and objects (the thing the sentence does something to or with). We could combine just the introductory phrase and then join the two sentences together, or we could change the wording of the sentence a little bit:
- In the end, Clint worked well with Wade, and Wade worked well with Clint.
- In the end, Clint and Wade worked well together.
Different Types of Conjunctions
All of the conjunctions have been removed from the following passage. Which conjunctions would best fill the gaps? Explain your reasoning why. The sentences have been numbered to aid you in your comments.
(1) Karni’s roommate, Joana, decided to drive to work; _____, Karni rode into the city with her. (2) They needed to turn left on 140th Street, _____ that street was under construction. (3) _____ Karni could say anything, _____, Joana had already found an alternate route.
(4) _____ did Karni arrive at work, _____ her boss told her she would be working with her coworker Ian on her next project. (5) Karni was really impressed by Ian’s professional accomplishments, _____ she was anxious about working with him. (6) Karni thought Ian was annoying, unpredictable, _____ reckless.
(7) _____, Karni was willing to put aside her opinions to get the job done. (8) She knew Ian would put in his best effort _____ they worked together, _____ she felt she could do no less—_____ he frustrated her. (9) Personal relationships are often _____ important _____ professional skills.
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Show Answer
Here are the sentences with suggested conjunctions. These are not the only possible solutions. If you answered something different, compare your reasoning with the reasoning provided below.
- Karni’s roommate, Joana, decided to drive to work; therefore, Karni rode into the city with her.
- As the punctuation currently exists (a semicolon followed by a comma), the sentence needs an adverbial conjunction. However, using therefore here feels a little stuffy. If you change the semicolon to a comma and remove the second comma, you can then use the coordinating conjunction so instead, which feels more natural: “. . . , so Karni rode into the city with her.”
- They needed to turn left on 140th Street, but that street was under construction.
- Since the blank is preceded only by a comma, a coordinating conjunction should go here. The conjunction but has the most appropriate meaning in this sentence.
- Before Karni could say anything, however, Joana had already found an alternate route.
- Since there is no comma after the first blank, we know we need a subordinating conjunction here. Before makes the most sense here.
- Since this blank appears in the middle of an idea, we know we need an adverbial conjunction here. However makes the most sense here.
- No sooner did Karni arrive at work, than her boss told her she would be working with her coworker Ian on her next project.
- The two blanks in this sentence indicate a correlative conjunction. The sentence indicates the two things happened at the same time, so no sooner . . . than is the correct option here.
- Karni was really impressed by Ian’s professional accomplishments, but she was anxious about working with him.
- Since the blank is preceded only by a comma, a coordinating conjunction should go here. The conjunction but has the most appropriate meaning in this sentence.
- Karni thought Ian was annoying, unpredictable, and reckless.
- Since the blank is preceded only by a comma, a coordinating conjunction should go here. The conjunction and has the most appropriate meaning in this sentence.
- However, Karni was willing to put aside her opinions to get the job done.
- Since the blank is followed by a comma, we know we need an adverbial conjunction here. However makes the most sense here.
- She knew Ian would put in his best effort while they worked together, so she felt she could do no less—even if he frustrated her.
- Since there is no comma before or after the first blank, we know we need a subordinating conjunction here. While makes the most sense here, but as long as or if would also work.
- Since the blank is preceded only by a comma, a coordinating conjunction should go here. The conjunction so has the most appropriate meaning in this sentence.
- This blank is a little trickier; it is preceded by a dash, which can stand in for a lot of different punctuation marks. A subordinating conjunction is likely the best solution. We’ve used even if here, but there are a lot of possibilities, including even though.
- Personal relationships are often as important as professional skills.
- The two blanks in this sentence indicate a correlative conjunction. The sentence indicates the two things of equal importance, so as . . . as is the correct option here.