FOR and BECAUSE: coordinating or subordinating conjunction?

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soidog
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FOR and BECAUSE: coordinating or subordinating conjunction?

Post by soidog »

I am confused why FOR is a coordinating conjunction and BECAUSE is a subordination conjunction (in my text books).

- He ate a meal, for he was hungry.
- He ate a meal because he was hungry.

Is the meaning different?
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Alan
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Re: FOR and BECAUSE: coordinating or subordinating conjunction?

Post by Alan »

No, but that has no bearing on the grammatical classification, which depends on the possible order of clauses.

Because

He ate a meal because he was hungry.

can be re-ordered to

Because he was hungry, he ate a meal.

'because' is classified as a subordinating conjunction.

However, since it cannot be re-ordered to

*For he was hungry, he ate a meal.

'for' is not classified as a subordinator.
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