Connecting sentences

In English, you use the word "and" to connect two main clauses: "I read a book and you are eating a fish". This is something you can't do in Tamil. Instead, you would break this up into two sentences:

Example

நான் புத்தகத்தை வாசிக்கின்றேன்.｢nāṉ puttakattai vācikkiṉṟēṉ.｣நீ மீன் ஒன்றைச் சாப்பிட்டுகொண்டிருக்கின்றாய்.｢nī mīṉ oṉṟaic cāppiṭṭukoṇṭirukkiṉṟāy.｣

The same rule applies for sentences that you want to connect using but. You split them up into two different sentences and start the latter sentence with ஆனால்｢āṉāl｣

Example

I read a book but you are playingநான் புத்தகத்தை வாசிக்கின்றேன்.｢nāṉ puttakattai vācikkiṉṟēṉ.｣ஆனால் நீ விளையாடிக்கொண்டிருக்கின்றாய்.｢āṉāl nī viḷaiyāṭikkoṇṭirukkiṉṟāy.｣

Another conjungtion working with the same concept is or which is அல்லது｢allatu｣ in Tamil.

Note that in all sentences above the two clauses are exactly written like main clauses, so all of them follow the same S-O-V structure as you learnt above. They would exactly be the same if you wouldn't use any conjugation in between.