Transition Words

Transition words work as bridges between parts of speech. They are cues that guide the reader to comprehend your ideas. Transitional words or phrases help carry your thoughts forward from one sentence to another and one paragraph to another. Finally, transitional words link sentences and paragraphs together smoothly so that there are no abrupt jumps or breaks between ideas.

Both conjunctions and transitions are words and phrases that connect ideas together. Conjunctions are words that connect two phrases or clauses, whereas transitions are words or phrases that indicate the relationship between two sentences or paragraphs.

The main difference between conjunctions and transitions is that conjunctions connect two clauses, but transitions connect two sentences or paragraphs. Every sentence has at least one clause in it, but not every clause forms a complete sentence. Each clause contains a subject and a predicate (verb or verb phrase) of its own, and sometimes other modifiers. There are two types of clauses.

There are four basic types of main clause: declaratives (statements), interrogatives (questions), imperatives (orders/instructions) and exclamatives (used for exclamations).

Types of clauses are:

  • Independent Clauses (Main Clause)
  • Dependent Clauses (Subordinate Clause)
  • Relative Clauses (Adjective Clause)
  • Noun Clauses
HERE ARE SOME TRANSITION WORDS AND THE CATEGORIES TO WHICH THEY BELONG.

To Add:

and, again, and then, besides, equally important, finally, further, furthermore, nor, too, next, lastly, what’s more, moreover, in addition, first (second, etc.)

To Compare:

whereas, but, yet, on the other hand, however, nevertheless, on the contrary, by comparison, where, compared to, up against, balanced against, vis a vis, but, although, conversely, meanwhile, after all, in contrast, although this may be true

To Prove:

because, for, since, for the same reason, obviously, evidently, furthermore, moreover, besides, indeed, in fact, in addition, in any case, that is

To Show Exception:

yet, still, however, nevertheless, in spite of, despite, of course, once in a while, sometimes

DO YOU KNOW THESE TRANSITION WORDS AND THE CATEGORIES TO WHICH THEY BELONG TO?
aboveabove allAmidAll in all
asAs a resultas long asAs can be seen
as much asAs soon asas well asand yet
as in illustrationAs shown aboveAs has been notedas a matter of fact
Afterafter allAt the present timeat the same time
AmongAroundAcrossAlthough
AgainAltogetheralsoAbout
AlongsideandAll of a suddenAnd still
another key pointAlthough this may be trueAll things consideredAt this instant
albeitadditionallyAround the cornerAdjacent to
Accordinglyan often overlooked pointBeforeBeside
BeneathBetweenButBroadly speaking
BehindBelowby the same tokenbe that as it may
By the timeby all meansBeyondbeing that
besidesbecause ofBecauseBecause this
‘tilUntilUltimatelyTill
Stillin contrastin contrast todifferent from
SinceLaterLastWhen
DefinitelyUnder those circumstancesUnder these circumstancesUnder such circumstances
ObviouslyGenerally speakingSpeaking generallyForthwith
Forillustrated byin this casein the case of
From time to timeso long ason the condition thaton the condition of
Sooner or laterIn the meantimeIn a momentWithout delay
FurtherIn the long runGiven these pointschiefly
Fromin spite ofeven sothough
correspondinglythen againcertaintyin reality
likeDownUpUnder
furthermoreimportant to realizeconverselyfirst thing to remember
similarlytrulyindeedDuring
despiteIn timeotherwisehowever
equallyidenticallyuniquelyEffectively
equally importantsimilarly importantin light ofnot to mention
especiallyexplicitlyspecificallyexpressly
even thoughPrior toinsteadwhereas
firstly/secondly/thirdlyIn effectFor that reasonto say nothing of
for examplefor instanceto demonstrateto emphasize
for this reasonto put it another waythat is to saywith attention to
FormerlySuddenlyShortlyHenceforth
On balanceOverNearTo summarize
In factFinallyNearbyWherever
HereThereNextWhere
IfThenunlesswhen
ImmediatelyQuicklySwiftlyFinally
In a wordFor the most partcoupled withEventually
In essencein generalin particularin detail
In other wordsto put it differentlyputting it differentlyfor one thing
in similar fashionin the same fashionin a similar wayfirst/second/third
in such a mannerin this mannerin additionFor this reason
In summaryIn conclusionIn shortIn brief
In that caseIn this caseIn such a caseIn the center
In the distanceHere and thereIn the foregroundIn the background
In the event thatin the event ofgranted thatgiven that
In the final analysisliketo be sureEverything considered
In the first placenot only…but alsoeven ifin like manner
includingregardlessOpposite toFirst/second…
In the middleTo the left/rightIn front ofOn this side
InstantlyPresentlyOccasionallynamely
nonethelessornotwithstandingNow
of course…buton the other handon the contrarycontrary to this
on the positive sideon the negative sidewith this in mindNotably
on this conditionfor the purpose offor the benefit ofwith the intention of
OnceonlyNextOverall
owing toso thatso as to
due toOrdinarilyUsuallyBy and large
point often overlookedinasmuch asto point outpoints towards
provided thatprovidinggiven thatgiven this
ratherthougheven thoughnevertheless
seeing thatWhilstin view ofin lieu of
sinceUntil nowlestIn case
Straight awayNow thattellingHence
surelymarkedlyForthwithsuch as
surprisinglyfrequentlysignificantlyparticularly
ThenThereinThereuponTherefore
totooof courseConsequently
ThusthenTheyet
whileMeanwhilewheneverMoreover
to repeatto clarifyto explainto enumerate
To sum upOn the wholeIn any eventIn either case
to the end thatfor fear thatfor fear ofin order to
together withunlikelikewisecomparatively
Up to the present timeTo begin withIn due timeFurther
with this intentionwith this in mindin the hope ofin the hope that