II. BUILDING COMPOUND AND COMPLEX SENTENCES

2. Complex Sentences: Joining an Independent Clause to a Dependent Clause

2.1 Common Subordinating Clauses and their Meanings

Subordinating conjunctions join two clauses into a certain kind of relationship of thought: a time relationship, a cause/effect relationship, a contrasting relationship, or a conditional relationship (something must happen, a condition, for something else to happen).

The following are subordinating conjunction categories; some common subordinating conjunctions for each one, their meanings and an example of each are given. The dependent clause with the subordinating clause is the adverb clause.