When to Use Transition Words?įundamentally, we use transition words to connect sentences and words together. The point is that transition words cover a wide variety of language, but it’s more important to recognize their function rather than categorize them. Often transition words are conjunctive adverbs – words like however, also, indeed, instead, still, therefore – or phrases containing conjunctive adverbs, conjunctions and adverbs. Indeed, because of the evolution of language over time, new transition phrases can appear all the time. There are 100s of transition words and phrases in English. We do not explicitly know that the two sentences are related, whereas the previous example shows that James visited his grandparents as an alternative to going to the movies. The lack of a link between the two sentences leaves things a bit vague. It links the two sentences together by referring back to the first sentence and signaling that an alternative idea has been introduced.Ĭonsider the example without the transition word: The transition word in the above example is instead. Transition words can also help a passage of writing flow better, although it is best not to overuse them. They are used to connect words and sentences, often by referring back to one idea and signaling the introduction of a new one.

Transition words and phrases are an important part of the English language.

Introductory words for paragraphs