English Grammer For Competetive Exam

HOW TO SOLVE COMMON ERROR QUESTIONS BASED ON CONJUNCTIONS

What are Conjunctions?

Conjunctions are the words which are used to connect/join clauses or sentences. Some commonly used conjunctions are listed below –

But, or, as if, as soon as, yet, and, until, rather, unless, hardly, scarcely, too, not only, but also, both, also, as well as, nor, or, neither, such as are some examples of Conjunctions.

Example:-

1)Mohan is rich but he is not happy.
2)My mother cooked the food and my sister served it.

Here ‘But’ and ‘and’ are conjunctions.

How to solve common error questions

Uses of Conjunction

1.  ‘As’ and ‘That’ are used after ‘such’

Example:- She is not such a fool as she looks.
  We hope it is not such a slow process as it is taking time.

2.  ‘And’ is used after ‘both’.

Note : – ‘as well as / or’ is not used used after ‘both’

Example:- Mohan is both intelligent and smart.
  Both he and she are hardworking.

3.  After ‘Though’, ‘yet’/ (,) is used.

Example:-Though she is poor yet she is honest.
  Though she worked hard, she failed.

4. ‘When’ is used after ‘Scarcely’, ‘Barely’, ‘Hardly’

Example:- He was hardly halfway across the city when his Mother called him.

5.  Use ‘nor’ with ‘neither’

  Use ‘Or’ with ‘Either’

  Use ‘but also’ with ‘Not only’

Example:-Neither he nor his friends have the black pen.
  Not only Rekha but also Sheena have the same car.
  Either you or he is intelligent.

6. ‘Than’ is used after ‘No sooner’

Example:- No sooner did I arrive at the busstop than the bus came.

7.  ‘than’ is used after ‘other’

Example:- She parked her car in front of the other gate than her own.

8.  After ‘that’, Imperative/Interrogative and Optative sentences are not used.

Example:- He said that eat it all at once. Incorrect
  We said that Where is your house? Incorrect
  My father said that May god bless you! Incorrect

Interrogative Sentences– Those sentences are those sentences which asks a question and ends with a question mark.

Example:-Where do you live?

Optative Sentences – those sentences which express wish or desire.

Example:-May you live long!

But with indirect form in Exclamatory and Optative sentences, ‘that’ is used.

Example:- He wished that you might live long.

9. Nowadays ‘So…as’ and ‘As…as’ are used in Negative sentences and in affirmative sentences.

Example:- Shikha is not as good as Sakshi.
  She is not so/as bad as she looks in photographs.

Earlier only So….as in Negative and As…..as in affirmative sentences

10.After ‘Whether’, ‘no’ or ‘not’ can be used; ‘that’ is never used in place of ‘whether’

Example:-He doesnot know whether I am here or not. – Correct
He doesnot know that I am here or not. – Incorrect

11. ‘Unless’, ‘Until’, ‘if not’ are not used with Negative sentences as they already are negative.

‘Until’ and ’till’ tell us about the time.

‘Unless’ tell us about the condition.

Example:- Wait here unless he comes. – Incorrect
  Wait here until he comes. Correct

12. ‘When’ is used -When one work is finished and other one starts.

Example:- When she reached her destination she stared missing her family.

‘While’ is used when both work is done simultaneously.

Example:- I saw a leopard when I was on the road.

13. Till and until are used to represent something that happened in past.

I continued to be good in sports, until I was eight years old.

Use of ‘As long as’

Example:- You will pass as long as you will study hard.

14.If any sentence starts with ‘As’, ‘because’, ‘Since’ then ‘so’, ‘therefore’, ‘thus’ cannot be used after them.

Example:-As I liked it so I purchased it.

As I liked it I purchased it.

Similarly, After ‘because’ and ‘before’, we don’t used ‘that’.

Example:- He was late because that he missed his bus. – Incorrect

He was late because he missed his bus. – Correct

15.  With ‘As if’ and ‘as though’, Past conditional is used, instead of Present and Future.

Example:-He seems as if he is mad. – Incorrect

 He seems as if he were mad.- Correct