Conjunctive Phrases sans que, si bien que, tandis que, tant que, and quoique

There are two kinds of conjunctions. The conjunctions of coordination and the conjunctions of subordination. Conjunctions are invariable words or phrases that join two parts of speech, two clauses or even two sentences . Conjunctions can help form a relation between words, clauses or sentences such as opposition, addition, consequence, cause etc...

In this chapter, we will study the conjunctive phrases. These are phrases formed with conjunctions of subordination and which link two or more clauses. There are so many conjunctive phrases that it would be hard to study them all. That’s why we selected the most common ones to study in this chapter.

In today’s lesson we will study the following conjunctive phrases: sans que, si bien que, tandis que, tant que, and quoique.

sans que

“sans que” means “without”. It is followed with a verb in the subjunctive mode. Unlike with “avant que” and “à moins que”, the adverb “ne” (le “ne” explétif) is not used before the subjunctive verb unless the verb of the main clause is negative.