WORD CLASS: LINKERS

1. Linkers or conjunctions are words that link sentences and clauses.

2. Sentences can be linked together, as in:

avui tinc feina, però sortiré abans de l‘oficina	today I’ve got pending work, but I’ll leave the office earlier
em compraré aquesta camisa, encara que no me l’he emprovada	I will buy this shirt, though I haven’t tried it on

The previous examples are known as complex sentences, where no sentence is above the other one.

3. The main linkers of this type (coordination) are:

TYPE	FORM	ENGLISH	EXAMPLE	TRANSLATION
Copulative	i	and	tu i jo	you and me
	ni... ni	neither… nor	ni tu ni jo	neither you nor me
Disjunctive	o	or	la gent es riu o es queixa	people laugh or complain
	o... o	either… or	o vens o et quedes	either you come or you remain
Adversative	però	but	no sóc jo, però podria ser-ho	it isn’t me, but it could be me
	sinó	but	no sóc jo, sinó ella	it’s not me, but her
Explicative	és a dir	it means / i.e.	no és d’ací, és a dir, és estranger	it’s not from here, I mean, it’s foreign

4. Clauses are also linked. In that case, sentences possess more than one clause, for which they are known as compound sentences (see here for the different types thereof, which include its main linkers):

no vull que vinguis	I don’t want you to come
si vols alguna cosa, compra-te-la tu mateix	if you want something, buy it yourself

5. However, some linkers also link items within a phrase:

ni tu ni jo no ens entenem	neither you nor I understand each other
aquesta empresa neteja i pinta l’edifici per menys diners	this firm cleans and paints the building for less money