POSITION IN THE TEXT: Some linking words normally form a link between clauses WITHIN a sentence. It is bad style to start a sentence with these words:

and but so because then until such as Other linking words are used to form a link BETWEEN sentences. They must start with capital letters and are usually followed by a comma: Furthermore, Nevertheless, Moreover, Therefore, However, In conclusion,

ADDING AND RELATIVE CLAUSES and as well as Besides, / Moreover, / Furthermore, What is more, / In addition, not only… but also / … as well / … too another point is that who where that which whose when what why

CONTRASTING but However, Nevertheless, Although / Even though / Even if …, though Despite / in spite of On the contrary, on the one hand on the other hand, whereas while In contrast, Neither…nor Otherwise

EXPRESSING CAUSE AND RESULT because As / Since so / Therefore, As a result, This is why, Consequently, For this reason, too…for/to not enough…for/to due to / owing to / because of

NARRATION First (of all) / At first / Firstly To begin with, / In the first place, At the beginning / In the beginning secondly, thirdly, then / later / next Before After After that / afterwards immediately Once Suddenly As soon as Finally/Eventually until At the end In the end / At last

EXPRESSING PURPOSE / OPINION to so as to / in order to/ in order that / so that I would say that In my opinion, I (don’t) think (that) I (don’t) believe (that) Personally, From my point of view, / In my view, As far as … is concerned, As regards As far as I can see,

CONCLUDING All in all In conclusion, On the whole To sum up, Lastly,

In short,

EMPHASIS especially particularly Naturally, exactly above all In fact, Actually, As a matter of fact, Definitely Obviously Without a doubt so…that such a(n)…that

GIVING EXAMPLES / EXCEPTING for example for instance such as Apart from, With the exception of

Take the case of

GENERALIZING On the whole, In general, In most cases, Mostly,

AGREEING / DISAGREEING I agree with/to I don’t agree with/to / I disagree with/to I’m in favour of

CLARIFYING I mean (that) That is to say,

In other words,

SHOWING CONDITIONALITY If In case If not provided that unless

in that case

INSIST ON AN EARLIER POINT As I have said (before), As I have noted,

As suggested above,

SHOWING SIMILARITY likewise in the same way similarly in a similar manner like

CHANGE OF SUBJECT

By the way, Anyway,

Anyhow,

GRAMMATICAL DIFFERENCES: Some linking words must be followed by a CLAUSE (Subject + Verb + Object) while why because although so whereas when Other linking words should be followed by a NOUN PHRASE (linking word + (the) + Noun/Gerund) in spite of despite during because of

FUNCTION OF LINKING WORDS Linking words are used to connect two clauses or two sentences and they have different functions: Adding extra information, contrasting ideas, expressing cause and effect, narrating, expressing purpose, listing examples, etc.