During the research and creation of our grammar videos, we've come across a number of differing opinions on certain grammatical terms. In particular, we felt the need to clarify exactly which words were classed as coordinating conjunctions and which would be accepted in the grammar test. We were surprised by what we found.

As a teacher, you may well be used to telling your children the FANBOYS acronym for remembering coordinating conjunctions:

F = for
A = and
N = nor
B = but
O = or
Y = yet
S = so

Whilst this is a great acronym for improving writing, some would argue it's not actually an accurate representation of coordinating conjunctions. It would appear that, upon closer inspection, there are only three main coordinating conjunctions: 'and', 'but' and 'or'. Surprised? Well we certainly were, so we sought to clarify this directly with the Department for Education and here's what they had to say:

 

Would you agree with this? The BBC certainly does but the University of Bristol don't doesn't.

We can certainly agree on two things:

1. 'So that' is a subordinating conjunction
2. Those who will be marking May's GPS paper will only accept 'and', 'but' and 'or' as coordinating conjunctions.

What do you think? Do you agree? Do you use FANBOYS in your class? How do you explain 'so' and 'so that' to your children?