FANBOYS

Have you ever heard of the FANBOYS? No, I am not talking about the people who passionately follow a music group or a sports team. The acronym FANBOYS is a way for you to improve your written English by using the comma ( , ) appropriately, for it is sometimes headache inducing to determine where you should use one. The FANBOYS are extremely similar to the technique used in French (mais, ou, est, donc, car, ni, or). Learning about coordinate conjunctions (also called joining words) is the first step, and memorizing the acronym is the second step.

Joining words are words used to combine two different sentences together. However, joining words are not to be confused with introductory words like the “However” in this sentence, nor should they be treated as the only joining words that exist. There are other joining words in the English language, but the FANBOYS are the most common. When using the FANBOYS, the comma always goes before the joining word. If this seems unnecessary, you could refrain from using them, or, if you feel like getting adventurous, you could use them to improve the flow of your texts. The acronym is a useful tool that helps the most common joining words to be easily remembered, yet few people know of it.

You got the end of this text, so you should now have a better idea about how and when FANBOYS should be used. Despite that, you might think there is still one important detail missing from this explanation, and you would be right. The letters of the FANBOYS acronym stand for : for, and, nor, but, or, yet, and so. Now you are fully equipped to utilize this new tool.

Info : cle.anglaise@USherbrooke.ca