Expletives are closely related to conjunctive adverbs. The "official" line on expletives is that they convey no meaning of their own but instead serve only to emphasize the statement to which they are attached. As such, then, they technically do not show a logical relationship like time or cause between ideas, and that fact prevents them from being true-blue conjunctive adverbs. But it could be argued that expletives create a relationship of emphasis between ideas: this new idea is important in light of what preceded it. Indeed, that is why they are included here.
| Expletives | ||
| of course indeed naturally after all in short I hope at least remarkably | in fact I think it seems in brief clearly I suppose assuredly definitely | to be sure without doubt for all that on the whole in any event importantly certainly naturally |
Examples:
- The flashlight hit the floor and broke into a hundred pieces. At least there was a candle in the room.
- They all began to use appropriate expletives in their writing. They were convinced, I suppose, by the excellent examples.
- The conjunction list has left the building. On the whole, I hope you enjoyed it.
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