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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?

above	above all	Amid	All in all
as	As a result	as long as	As can be seen
as much as	As soon as	as well as	and yet
as in illustration	As shown above	As has been noted	as a matter of fact
After	after all	At the present time	at the same time
Among	Around	Across	Although
Again	Altogether	also	About
Alongside	and	All of a sudden	And still
another key point	Although this may be true	All things considered	At this instant
albeit	additionally	Around the corner	Adjacent to
Accordingly	an often overlooked point	Before	Beside
Beneath	Between	But	Broadly speaking
Behind	Below	by the same token	be that as it may
By the time	by all means	Beyond	being that
besides	because of	Because	Because this
‘til	Until	Ultimately	Till
Still	in contrast	in contrast to	different from
Since	Later	Last	When
Definitely	Under those circumstances	Under these circumstances	Under such circumstances
Obviously	Generally speaking	Speaking generally	Forthwith
For	illustrated by	in this case	in the case of
From time to time	so long as	on the condition that	on the condition of
Sooner or later	In the meantime	In a moment	Without delay
Further	In the long run	Given these points	chiefly
From	in spite of	even so	though
correspondingly	then again	certainty	in reality
like	Down	Up	Under
furthermore	important to realize	conversely	first thing to remember
similarly	truly	indeed	During
despite	In time	otherwise	however
equally	identically	uniquely	Effectively
equally important	similarly important	in light of	not to mention
especially	explicitly	specifically	expressly
even though	Prior to	instead	whereas
firstly/secondly/thirdly	In effect	For that reason	to say nothing of
for example	for instance	to demonstrate	to emphasize
for this reason	to put it another way	that is to say	with attention to
Formerly	Suddenly	Shortly	Henceforth
On balance	Over	Near	To summarize
In fact	Finally	Nearby	Wherever
Here	There	Next	Where
If	Then	unless	when
Immediately	Quickly	Swiftly	Finally
In a word	For the most part	coupled with	Eventually
In essence	in general	in particular	in detail
In other words	to put it differently	putting it differently	for one thing
in similar fashion	in the same fashion	in a similar way	first/second/third
in such a manner	in this manner	in addition	For this reason
In summary	In conclusion	In short	In brief
In that case	In this case	In such a case	In the center
In the distance	Here and there	In the foreground	In the background
In the event that	in the event of	granted that	given that
In the final analysis	like	to be sure	Everything considered
In the first place	not only…but also	even if	in like manner
including	regardless	Opposite to	First/second…
In the middle	To the left/right	In front of	On this side
Instantly	Presently	Occasionally	namely
nonetheless	or	notwithstanding	Now
of course…but	on the other hand	on the contrary	contrary to this
on the positive side	on the negative side	with this in mind	Notably
on this condition	for the purpose of	for the benefit of	with the intention of
Once	only	Next	Overall
owing to		so that	so as to
due to	Ordinarily	Usually	By and large
point often overlooked	inasmuch as	to point out	points towards
provided that	providing	given that	given this
rather	though	even though	nevertheless
seeing that	Whilst	in view of	in lieu of
since	Until now	lest	In case
Straight away	Now that	telling	Hence
surely	markedly	Forthwith	such as
surprisingly	frequently	significantly	particularly
Then	Therein	Thereupon	Therefore
to	too	of course	Consequently
Thus	then	The	yet
while	Meanwhile	whenever	Moreover
to repeat	to clarify	to explain	to enumerate
To sum up	On the whole	In any event	In either case
to the end that	for fear that	for fear of	in order to
together with	unlike	likewise	comparatively
Up to the present time	To begin with	In due time	Further
with this intention	with this in mind	in the hope of	in the hope that