The term coordinate clause refers to one of two or more clauses of equal ‘value’ that make up a sentence. A coordinate clause does not function as a subject, object or complement in another sentence. It can stand alone to make a sentence by itself.

We normally use conjunctions like and, or, yet or but to join two coordinate clauses together. In the following examples the coordinate clauses are bracketed.

(The rain fell heavily) and (we all got wet).
(I shall do it now) or (I shall not do it at all).
(He threw the stone), but (it missed the dog.)
(The moon was bright) and (we could see our way).
(Shall I come to your place) or (would you like to come to mine?)

Copular Verbs

We use a special kind of verb to join an adjective or noun complement to a subject. These verbs are called copulas or copular verbs.

Examples are: be, become, appear, look, sound, grow, turn, smell, taste and get.

Peter is my boyfriend.
She looked pleased.
The fish tasted awful.
The night grew dark.
The milk turned sour.
His face became red.