Study guide: Logical Connectors in English

📋 Course Outline

1. Purpose of Logical Connectors
2. Five Connector Families
3. Connector Position and Punctuation
4. French Translation Traps
5. Clauses and Noun Phrases
6. Applied Examples and Presentation

📖 1. Purpose of Logical Connectors

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Logical connector: a word or expression that explains the relationship between two ideas, such as addition, contrast, cause, consequence, or chronology

💡 Memory Hook

No connector → the listener must guess the relationship.

📖 2. Five Connector Families

📝 Essential Points

• The five connector families are:

  • addition
  • contrast
  • reason
  • result
  • order

• Addition connectors include:

  • and
  • also
  • in addition
  • moreover

• Contrast connectors include:

  • but
  • however
  • although
  • despite
  • whereas

• Reason connectors include “because,” “as,” and “since,” while result connectors include “so,” “therefore,” and “that is why.”

💡 Memory Hook

ACRRO: Addition, Contrast, Reason, Result, Order.

📖 3. Connector Position and Punctuation

📝 Essential Points

• The connectors “and,” “but,” “so,” and “because” remain inside one sentence between two parts.

• “However,” “therefore,” “in addition,” and “moreover” can begin a new sentence and are followed by a comma.

• “Although,” “because,” “as,” and “since” are flexible connectors that can appear in the middle of a sentence or at its beginning.

💡 Memory Hook

One sentence: and/but/so/because; new sentence: However/Therefore/Moreover.

📖 4. French Translation Traps

📝 Essential Points

📌 When French “comme” means “since,” it must be translated as “as” or “since,” not “like.”

• “Like I do not work on Sunday, I can come” is incorrect, whereas “As I do not work on Sunday, I can come” is correct.

💡 Memory Hook

French “comme” → as/since, not like.

📖 5. Clauses and Noun Phrases

📝 Essential Points

• After “because,” “although,” or “while,” English requires a subject and a verb, as in “because it was late,” “although it was raining,” and “while we were flying.”

• After “because of,” “despite,” or “during,” English requires a noun rather than a verb, as in “because of the delay,” “despite the rain,” and “during the flight.”

• “Despite it was raining” is incorrect because “despite” requires a noun, while “although it was raining” is correct because “although” accepts a subject and a verb.

💡 Memory Hook

because/although/while + subject and verb; because of/despite/during + noun.

📖 6. Applied Examples and Presentation

📝 Essential Points

• The presentation plan says to avoid correcting immediately and to correct after the activity.

💡 Memory Hook

Teach first, correct afterwards.

📊 Synthesis Tables

Connector Grammar Patterns