The co-ordinating clause

The co-ordinating clause is attached to the main clause by a conjunction.

The most common co-ordinating conjunctions:

en	and
maar	but
of	or
want	as
dus*	so

(*) Dus can also mark the beginning of a subordinate clause.

A co-ordinating clause has the same word order as a main clause. See also overview? of the main clause.

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FF?	DIROB?	OV?		FF?	DIROB?	OV?
Mijn vader heeft	een boek	geschreven	en	ik ben	de omslag	aan het ontwerpen

My father has written a novel and I am designing the cover.

When we use en, we often skip elements that are repeated in the co-clause. In the following sentence, the subject hij (he) is repeated in the co-clause. Just like in English, we can omit the second occurrence of hij.

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FF?	DIROB?	OV?		FF?	MANNER?	MISC?	OV?
Mijn vader heeft	een boek	geschreven	en	(hij) wordt	vast	heel beroemd

My father has written a novel and he will probably become very famous.

The next sentence is a question. Note the inversion of the subject and finite verb?. Again, the word order of the main and co-clause are the same.

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FF?	MANNER?	PLACE?	OV?		FF?	MANNER?	OV?
Gaan jullie	nog	de stad in	-	of	blijven jullie	hier?	-

Are you still going out (to town) or are you staying (here)?

The PLACE-element has the form noun (de stad) + postposition (in), which is common for adverbial constructions that express movement or direction.

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FF?	MANNER?	PF?	OV?		FF?	PLACE?	OV?
Biologie valt	vandaag	uit	-	dus	jullie kunnen	naar huis	-

Biology (class) is cancelled today so you can go home.

Uit is the prefix of the separable compound verb? uitvallen (to be cancelled, to fall out).

In the above example, you may have missed the verb gaan (to go) in "jullie kunnen naar huis". Gaan is often omitted when it is supported by an auxiliary verb. Compare with: "We willen naar de film" (lit: we want to the movies), "Die bank kan naar mijn schoonouders" (lit: that couch can to my parents-in-law).

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FF?	DIROB?	OV?		FF?	DIROB?	OV?
Ik was	geen eieren	aan het bakken	maar	(ik was)	vis	aan het braden

I was not frying eggs but (I was) baking fish

Just like with the conjunction en, we can skip elements that are repeated in the co-clause when we use maar (but).

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FF?	MANNER?	DIROB?	OV?		FF?	DIROB?	OV?
Laten we	snel	het huis	opruimen	want	we krijgen	bezoek	-

Let's quickly tidy the house as we are getting visitors

The inversion in the finite form of the main clause occurs because we are using the "let's go" construction (see also imperative?).