ShmoopTube

00:04

Here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by transitions. The parts of speech that just

00:09

can't ever seem to stand still.

00:13

What should replace the underlined portion below, if anything?

00:18

Because I may smell pleasantly of citrus, I have no oranges.

00:29

A lot of our choices here are what's known as "transitions," phrases or words that help

00:34

relate one idea in a sentence to the next.

00:37

Each one is like a bridge that tells us the relationship between the place we're leaving

00:41

and the place we're headed.

00:46

The sentence in question is in bad need of a transition word that expresses some kind

00:50

of contradiction.

00:52

We've got two basic ideas: the speaker smells like citrus, and he or she doesn't have oranges.

00:58

These two ideas are kind of at odds with each other, right? Therefore we need a transition

01:03

word that gets across this contradictory relationship.

01:06

So, we know we can eliminate choice (A).

01:09

"Because" is used when one thing is directly caused by the next. It's used for showing

01:14

logical linkages, not contradictions.

01:16

(B) is wrong because "unless" tries to make oranges conditional on the smell of citrus.

01:24

If it said something like, "Unless I have oranges, I won't smell like citrus," then

01:28

it would make more sense.

01:31

That isn't an option, however. So we can eliminate choice (B).

01:34

(D) gives us the introductory phrase "on the contrary." Introductory phrases set the stage

01:39

for the sentence to come, and they always require a comma to set them apart.

01:44

Choice (D) has no comma and sounds like total gobbledygook.

01:48

Because of its punctuation error, we don't have to give (D) another thought.

01:53

Choice (C) correctly uses the transition word "although."

01:58

It sets up the contradiction we've been looking for, making it understood that this person

02:02

smells like citrus even though he or she doesn't have any.

02:09

Our best guess is that the speaker ate all the oranges before he or she arrived, leaving

02:12

none for anybody else. What a jerk.

Full Transcript