Chapter 6: Joining Ideas: Conjunctions and Connectors

Learning Objectives

Use for in the period sense of "because" in ordinary conversation.
Use period-flavored subordinating conjunctions such as ere, lest, and except.
Use else, only, and for that as casual connectors, and recognize when they had already begun to sound old-fashioned.

Conjunctions rarely get much attention in language study, but the way a speaker links their clauses together says almost as much about their period and their class as any single word choice. This chapter covers the connectors that will do the most to make your run-on dialogue feel authentically eighteenth-century rather than simply old-sounding.

6.1 The Everyday Coordinators

And, but, or, so, and yet were used across both centuries in essentially the same way — you can use them exactly as you already do. One coordinating conjunction, though, worked much harder in 1770 than it does now: for, used in the sense of "because." Today for in this sense is confined almost entirely to formal writing; in the eighteenth century, speakers of every class used it constantly in ordinary conversation.

I must desire that you change the subject, for I have not, at present, the slightest thoughts of going. You may as well hold your tongue, for I sha'n't be called to no account by you.

Swapping because for for is one of the cheapest, most broadly useful substitutions in this book. It works for nearly any character in nearly any register, and it costs you nothing in intelligibility.

6.2 Subordinating Conjunctions

Many subordinating conjunctions — after, although, as, as if, because, before, if, since, though, till, unless, until, when, whenever, where, wherever, while — were already common to both the eighteenth and twenty-first centuries and need no adjustment.

A second group, though, was more distinctly of the period: except, ere, whether, lest, and that. Modern speakers still recognize all of these, but rarely reach for them in casual talk — which is exactly what makes them useful here. Notice, too, that where a modern speaker would usually say so that, the period was content with a bare that:

Scarce had I parted with the letter, ere I regretted having written it at all. I am unwilling to quarrel with him, lest I should be denied entrance to his house. I have only minuted it down, that should he get well, it may be conjectured how it has come about. Except the Lord watereth, the labour of man that cultivates is but lost labour.

Ere — "Before," in the sense of time. A period-flavored subordinating conjunction, still recognizable to modern ears through phrases like "ere long," but rarely used in ordinary modern speech.

6.3 Casual Connectors on Their Way Out

Three more connectors — else (a shortened form of or else), only (used where we would now say but), and for that (used where we would now say because) — were common in casual talk across all classes through most of the century, but by the 1770s were starting to be seen by careful, genteel speakers as not quite polished. That makes them well suited to a plain-spoken or slightly old-fashioned character, and worth avoiding for one who is deliberately careful about sounding refined.

We were the first at the door, else we should have been crushed to death by the mob. For my part, I think it's very pretty, only I don't know what it means. He said she might have the room now when she liked it, for that he was just going out.

By the 1770s, genteel speakers were quietly moving away from else, only (as "but"), and for that. Use them for casual or old-fashioned characters; a young character actively trying to sound polished and current would more likely avoid them.

6.4 Putting It Together

Take a plain compound sentence — "I can't come tonight because I promised to visit my sister, but I'll call tomorrow" — and rebuild it with this chapter's connectors:

I cannot come tonight, for I have promised to visit my sister; only, I'll call upon you tomorrow.

Try a few of your own, paying attention to how swapping just one or two connectors changes the whole rhythm of the sentence without touching the vocabulary around it.