- All right. We're gonna wrap up conjunctions with the second part of our conjunctions duo. If you haven't done so already, I highly recommend checking out part one before watching part two since we covered some of the high-level conjunction stuff at the beginning of that lesson.

And because we already covered general conjunction information, there's no reason not to dive right into our discussion of coordinate conjunctions, which are used to connect equal ideas. And you might already know this handy mnemonic for memorizing the seven coordinating conjunctions, which is of course FANBOYS.

For, and, nor, but, or, yet, and last but certainly not least, so. Know these conjunctions. And more importantly, know the rule the SAT loves to test. When you are linking two independent clauses with a coordinating conjunction, you must place a comma before the coordinating conjunction.

Here is that pattern. Independent clause plus a comma and a FANBOY, and then the second independent clause. Here's an example. "I hate most sugary drinks." That is an independent clause.

"I love hazelnut lattes" is an independent clause as well. And if we are linking these two equal independent clauses into one big old compound sentence, we must include a comma with our but. When you connect two independent clauses with a coordinating conjunction, you must include a comma.

But just because you see a coordinating conjunction, don't automatically assume that a comma belongs as well. Know when to use commas. If you aren't dealing with independent clauses, as in two independent clauses, you should not include a comma.

In fact, doing so will lead you to an incorrect answer. Check out this pattern. Independent clause plus a FANBOY plus a dependent clause. Notice what's missing? Hopefully you caught that the comma is no longer part of the structure.

Let's return to our example. Take a moment to see if you can tell how the sentence changed. If you caught that the main subject of the second clause, I, was removed, nicely done, because without a main subject, that second clause changed from an independent clause to now being a dependent clause.

The other thing I hope you noticed is that in this situation, the comma disappeared. That change brings us to this next somewhat related rule. Unless there are two independent clauses, you do not include a comma with the FANBOYS. Putting a comma with a FANBOY when you have one independent and one dependent clause is a classic SAT trap.

This one is annoying because in the real world, you see commas plus FANBOYS all the time, no matter what type of clauses are being linked because no one really cares about this rule anymore outside of the SAT. But for the SAT, those test writers definitely care.

You really do have to rely on your eyes and not your ears to catch these since the correct and incorrect constructions both sound fine and are familiar to you. All right, everybody, let's check out a practice problem. If you feel so inclined, pause, solve, and then resume when you're ready to see the answer.

Taking a quick glance at the answer choices, you see commas and the word and appearing and disappearing. So you know you are being tested on coordination. We need to see what kind of clauses we have to the left and right of where we're joining the ideas together, which is after 1911.

No matter what, that's gonna be part of the answer. So we can go ahead and put it into the sentence or imagine it's in the sentence. Now, to the left of the blank, we have an independent clause. "Norwegian explorer Roald Almundsen, reached the South Pole in 1911." And to the right, we have another independent clause, "His exposition returned home months later to international acclaim." And we learned a few slides back that if we're using a coordinating conjunction to link independent clauses, we need a FANBOY, but we also need a comma.

So D is the answer. A creates a run-on. B fails to include the comma. And C is one of SAT's favorite errors, a comma splice. And there you have it, the rules you need to know when the SAT throws coordinating conjunctions at you.

Let's wrap up with final takeaways. And this will be for both lessons, part one and two. Knowing conjunction rules will help you master boundaries questions because they reveal a lot about how you should and should not link clauses.

Here's a short checklist to follow based on what we covered. When you know you're being asked to combine clauses, first thing to determine is, can each clause stand alone? Are they both independent or is one dependent? If one is dependent, does it come before or after the independent clause?

If you get the clause structure right, the correct answer usually becomes much more obvious. Next thing to consider, are you dealing with coordinate or subordinate conjunctions? Maybe even both. And again, where are the conjunctions being placed in the sentence or answer choices?

And finally, does the punctuation match the structure? Anytime you're working on a boundaries question, it's a good idea to run this checklist. It works for commas, conjunctions, and sentence breaks across the SAT. In the next lesson, we're going to discuss conjunctive adverbs, words like however and therefore, these are words that are often mistaken for subordinate conjunctions, so it's important that you learn to spot what makes them different.

They do look similar, but they follow very different rules. And the SAT loves testing them. Until next time, thanks for watching, everybody.