A coordinated sentence is a type of compound sentence, that is, those that consist of two or more verb forms (those that have only one verb are simple sentences).
There are three types of compound sentences: coordinated, subordinate and juxtaposed.
Coordinated sentences are those that the parts that form it have the same syntactic level. In other words, each proposition is independent and does not depend on each other. In this way, each proposition or part of the sentence makes sense on its own. This circumstance is exclusive to coordinated sentences and does not occur in the case of subordinate or juxtaposed sentences, in which there is a dependency relationship of the propositions that are part of the sentence.
In all coordinated sentences there are some joining elements, also known as links. The most well-known particles or links are: and, or, nor, e, but, although, more, however, etc.
Classes of coordinated sentences
Depending on the type of link that unites them or their meaning, these sentences can be divided as follows: copulative, disjunctive, adversative, distributive and explanatory.
- Copulative sentences are those that express the sum or union of two parts, in a positive or negative sense. If we say "My friend is tall and my niece is tall" it would be a positive union. On the contrary, "Neither my friend sings nor my aunt dances" would be an example of union in a negative sense.
- Disjunctive sentences are those that present two or more possibilities. An example would be the following: "Either you come here or you better go."
- The adversative sentences are those that manifest an opposition in the meaning of the propositions that form them and their characteristic nexus is but. Let's take two simple examples: "He likes to ride his bike but he can't do it frequently", "I want to write to him but I can't decide" (in this case the link more is a more cultured way than but).
- The distributive sentences present an unopposed alternation ("Some come, others go" or "Well go with me, well don't go, you will have a great time").
- Explanatory sentences are those in which one proposition explains the meaning of the other. If we say "He got up late, that is, he did not get up early" there is a part of the sentence that serves as a clarification of another sentence structure.
