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Conjunctions
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Conjunctions

Overview

Conjunctions join words, phrases and clauses. There are two main types of conjunctions: coordinating conjunctions and subordinating conjunctions.

Use

Coordinating conjunctions

Coordinating conjunctions are words such as and, but, for, nor and or. These conjunctions link words, phrases, and clauses.

The most common coordinating conjunctions in Spanish are:

y, e* — and
pero — but
o, u** — or
ni — nor
sino — but, except

* The conjunction y becomes e when it precedes words that begin with i-, hi-, and y-, such as hierro.
 **The conjunction o becomes u when it precedes words that begin with o-, such as otro.

Examples:

  • El programa protege los tigres, los leones y los jaguares. (The program protects tigers, lions, and jaguars.)
  • Me gustaría hacerlo pero será imposible.* (I would like to do it, but it will be impossible.)
  • Quiero comprar esto, o no compro nada. (I want to buy this one, or I won't buy anything.)
  • No quiero ver ni esto ni aquello. (I want to see neither this nor that.)

* Although one most often uses pero to mean "but," if the second clause or phrase is a contradition of a negation, sino should always be used. That is, No quiero esto sino eso. If sino introduces a clause it becomes sino que: No lo restauró sino que lo destruyó.

Subordinating conjunctions

Subordinating conjunctions introduce subordinate clauses, often adverbial clauses that begin with words such as unless, although, because, before, since, until, andwhile . A number of prepositions in Spanish become subordinating conjunctions by adding que.

Some simple and compound subordinating conjunctions in Spanish are:

a menos que — unless
antes (de) que — before
aunque — although, even though
con tal (de) que — provided that
cuando — when
de modo que — so that
desde que — since
después (de) que — after
en cuanto — as soon as
hasta que — until
para que — so that
que — that
si — if
sin que — without

Examples of usage:

  • Veo que estás listo. (I see that you're ready.)
  • Vamos a la sierra aunque llueva. (We're going to the mountains even though it may rain.)
  • No diría eso si supiera la verdad. (He wouldn't say that if he knew the truth.)

See also

Present subjunctive
Imperfect subjunctive
Prepositions