You will learn to be coherent in written and spoken English.

1. Main points:
You can use pronouns and
determiners to refer back to
something that has already been
mentioned.
You use coordinating conjunctions to
link clauses.

2. When you speak or write, you
usually need to make some
connection with other things that
you are saying or writing.
The most common way of doing this
is by referring back to something
that has already been mentioned.

3. One way of referring back to something is to use
a personal pronoun such as «she», «it», «them»,
etc. or a possessive pronoun such as «mine» or
«hers»:
1. My brother is fat. He weights over 100 kg.
2. Denise has just came in. She is a very attractive young lady.
3. I have never been to London. Mary told me it is crowded but
very nice.
4. Whose car is this? – It’s not mine.
5. Have you ever heard of David Crystal? – Yes, I’ve just read a
book of his.

4. You can also use a specific determiner such as
«the» or «his» in front of a noun to refer back
to something:
1. A boy and a girl were walking down the hill. The boy wore
shorts, a t-shirt and sneakers. The girl wore a striped dress.
2. My boss has just returned from London. His business trip
was a complete success.

5. The demonstratives: this, that, these and those
are also used to refer back to a thing or fact
that has just been mentioned:
1. In 1988 he went on an expedition on Mount Everest. At the
beginning of this expedition he began to experience pain in
his chest.
2. There is a lot of good material on English Café. You
could use some of that to complete your essay.

6. The following general determiners can also be
used to refer back to something:
ANOTHER, BOTH, EACH, EITHER,
NEITHER, EVERY, OTHER
1. Seven managers were sacked. Another two were arrested.
2. There are more than two hundred and fifty species of
sharks, and every one is different.

7. Another way of making connections is spoken
or written English is by using one of the
following coordinating conjunctions:
AND, BUT, NOR, OR,
SO, THEN, YET
1. Johnny had to go into town and he wanted to go to Main
Street.
2. I asked if I could borrow his bicycle but he refused.
3. She was born in New York and raised in Brooklyn.

8. There is another way to link sentences together
and that is by using the subordinating
conjunctions:
1. We send the parcel by airmail. Therefore, it’s away on
Wednesday and our customer gets it on Monday.
2. You can take my car as long as you drive carefully.
3. I will fix your bicycle when I get back home.

9. When people are speaking or writing, they often
use words that refer back to very similar words,
or words that refer back to a whole sentence or
paragraph:
1. Everything was quiet. Everywhere there was the silence of
the winter nights.
2. “What are you going to do?” – “That’s a good question.”

10. Gramatik