A practical english grammar - Vyssaja skola 1978

Coordinating conjunctions
Sound symbols

The truck is ahead of    the bus.

The commonest conjunction is and. It is called coordinating, by which we mean that it connects structures that are the same: two nouns, two verbs, two prepositional phrases, two sentences, and so on.

two nouns:  Tom and his brother are here.

two verbs:  The children dance and sing.

two phrases: Look in the kitchen and in the bedroom.

two sentences: I study English and my brother studies German.

Usually, and means mere arithmetical addition. Often, however, it has other, more specialized uses.

Sometimes it means “next, subsequently”: He opened his mouth and yelled.

Sometimes it has a conditional meaning, “If the first thing happens, the second will happen”: Come closer and you’re a dead man.

A verb (sometimes a whole assertion) repeated two or more times, with and in between, means that the action gbes on for a very long time or that there are a great many repetitions.

We sang and sang.

I have tried and tried to understand this material.

I've called and I’ve called and I’ve called, but .there is no answer.

Other coordinating conjunctions are or and but. Their meanings are different from that of and: or means “one of the structures, to the exclusion of the other,” while but connects things both of which are true but are opposite in some way.

Do you want coffee or tea?

I like coffee, but I don’t like tea.

They are poor but happy.

He speaks English badly but Spanish well.