Grammar: Conjunctions

Russian Conjunctions

Conjunctions in Russian are used to link words, phrases and clauses together. They can show relationship, contrast, reason, purpose, outcome, condition, concession and more.

Types of Conjunctions

Russian features two main types of conjunctions, coordinating and subordinating.
Coordinating conjunctions connect sentences, parts of sentences or words of equal importance such as и (‘and’), но (‘but’), или (‘or’) and да (‘yet’).
Subordinating conjunctions connect a main clause with a subordinated clause to show a relationship in meaning like потому что (‘because’), если (‘if’), хотя (‘although’) and когда (‘when’).

Conjunction Usage

Russian conjunctions don’t take any kind of endings, they are invariable.
Most of the conjunctions are placed before the clause they introduce.
In sentences, conjunctions are not separated by commas unless they are coordinating conjunctions that join two clauses.

Special Features of Russian Conjunctions

Some Russian conjunctions, such as а, can have multiple meanings depending on the context.
Pairs of words, like или…или (‘either…or’) and не только…но и (‘not only…but also’), work together to create specific meanings.
Russian sometimes uses double negatives in conjunction with certain negative conjunctions like ни…ни (‘neither…nor’).
Unlike English, the conjunction что (‘that’) is not usually dropped in informal speech or writing in Russian.

As with any language, practice and familiarity with terms will always be the best method of perfecting the use of conjunctions. Try learning conjunctions in groups or semantic fields to make memorising easier.