Types Of French Conjunctions And How To Use Them

Have you been studying French? Are you trying to get your head around French conjunctions?

These little words are high frequency connectors that you’ll hear in every conversation.

In fact, by learning conjunctions, you’ll get a grasp of the bulk of most French sentences. 😄

Let’s consider the main conjunctions and some key examples.

French conjunctions

The main two types of conjunctions are:

Coordinating conjunctions
Subordinating conjunctions

What exactly are these conjunctions, and how are they different? 🤔

Here’s what you need to know.

Coordinating French conjunctions

A coordinating conjunction might be a small word, but it has the power to make a more complex French sentence structure.

They join clauses or words together, making your sentences longer and more informative.

You’ll hear native French speakers using coordinating conjunctions when joining clauses that are ‘equal’ in their importance or value.

We’ll return to this concept later.

Wondering how many coordinating conjunctions exist in French? Well, there are seven different examples.

Different coordinating conjunctions

The seven coordinating conjunctions you’ll need to add to your vocabulary include the examples in the table below.

French subordinating conjunction	English meaning	Example French sentence	English meaning
Car	Because	Elle est stressée car elle a beaucoup de travail.	She is stressed because she has a lot of work.
Mais	But	Il est fatigué, mais dormira bien cette nuit.	He is tired, but he will sleep well tonight.
Et	And	Il fait froid et il y a beaucoup de vent.	It’s cold, and there is a lot of wind.
Donc	Therefore/so	C’est l’été, donc il devrait faire chaud.	It’s summer; therefore it should be hot.
Ou	Or	Je voyagerai en train ou à pied jusqu’à la gare routière.	I will travel by train or on foot to the bus station.
Ni	Nor/neither	Vous n’êtes ni heureux ni triste. Juste indifférent.	You are neither happy nor sad. Just indifferent.
Or	Yet/now	Elle lui a parlé, or elle ne voulait pas.	She spoke to him, yet she didn’t want to.

Usage

There’s an easy way to use coordinating conjunctions in French: just remember that they connect two independent ideas that are equally important.

This rule means you’ll need to keep in mind that each clause offers the same ‘weight’ of meaning and the same function in your sentence.

You’ve got the freedom to join clauses that contain two or more adjectives, French nouns, adverbs or verbs with coordinating conjunctions in French.

You can even join a couple of independent clauses with these small words.

Let’s look at this concept in more detail with one example 😊:

Vous n’êtes ni heureux ni triste. Juste indifférent.

You are neither happy nor sad. Just indifferent.

In this example, we’ve used the coordinating conjunction ni to join two adjectives, heureux and triste.

You’ll notice that the conjunction comes between the two adjectives, which is the key to making the sentence more informative.

So when you’re using these conjunctions, this is one rule to remember.

Subordinating conjunctions

A subordinating conjunction is another joining word.

Native French speakers use these conjunctions to join dependent clauses to main clauses.

So there’s a difference between coordinating and subordinating conjunctions.

While coordinating conjunctions come between two equal clauses, subordinating conjunctions join clauses with different levels of importance in a sentence.

Need to know how many subordinating conjunctions exist in French?

There are eight main examples you’ll need to know.

Different subordinating conjunctions in French

Check out the eight subordinating conjunctions in French to add to your vocabulary and see some examples of usage below.

French subordinating conjunction	English meaning	Example French sentence	English meaning
Si	If	Je viendrai te voir si j’ai le temps.	I will visit you if I have time.
Quoique	Even though	Le travail, quoique interessant, est difficile.	The work, though interesting, is difficult.
Que	That	Il pensait qu’après tout ce temps, elle aurait changé.	He thought that after all this time, she would have changed.
Quand	When	Ils se disputaient beaucoup, quand ils étaient jeunes.	They argued a lot when they were young.
Puisque	Since/as	Acheter de la nourriture n’était pas nécessaire puisqu’elle en avait déjà assez.	Buying food wasn’t necessary since she already had enough.
Pourquoi	Why	Je lui demande pourquoi il est en colère.	I’m asking him why he’s angry.
Lorsque	When	L’événement se produit lorsque les travailleurs terminent leur projet.	The event occurs when the workers complete their project.
Comme	As/since	Comme il est très gentil, il aidera n’importe qui.	Since he is very kind, he will help anyone.

Usage

Using subordinating conjunctions in French will require you to know how propositions indépendantes differ from propositions principales and propositions subordonnées.

Let’s define each of these clauses to help you understand them.

Propositions indépendantes: these clauses make sense on their own. They’re complete sentences that may have other independent clauses attached to them with a coordinating conjunction.

Propositions subordonnées: you’ll notice that a dependent clause relies on a main clause to make sense. It makes no sense on its own.

Propositions principales: this clause connects to dependent clauses with a subordinating conjunction or relative pronoun.

As you can see from these explanations, subordinating conjunctions are the key to joining main clauses to dependent ones.

Here’s a quick example to explain this more clearly.

Ils se disputaient beaucoup, quand ils étaient jeunes.

They argued a lot when they were young.

In this example, the main clause is Ils se disputaient beaucoup.

We know this because it makes grammatical sense on its own and contains a subject, Ils, and a verb disputaient.

You’ll notice that the dependent clause is the second half of the sentence when they were young, which doesn’t make sense on its own.

Each clause has a different ‘weight’ of meaning.

The main clause Ils se disputaient beaucoup is more significant than the dependent clause. It carries the key message of the sentence, while the dependent clause just adds slightly more information.

Can you spot the subordinating conjunction? 🤔

In this case, it’s quand, which joins the main and dependent clauses.