Subordinating and coordinating conjunctions

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By Rosie Huckle

The National Curriculum (July 2014) sets out the expectation that in Key Stage 1, Year 2 pupils should be introduced to the grammatical concepts of subordination and coordination. That means they must develop an understanding of how to use the co-ordinating conjunctions or, and and but in sentences, as well as be confident in using the subordinating conjunctions when, if, that and because.

Conjunctions are joining words and their main function is to link together two different parts of a sentence.

Coordinating conjunctions

Coordinating conjunctions are used to join words, phrases or main clauses that have equal weight in a sentence. And, but and or are the three main coordinating conjunctions.