An important concept to know first is CLAUSE since those types of sentences involve clauses. A clause is a group of words which contains a subject and a predicate. There are two types of clauses. An independent clause is one which can stand on its own, while a dependent clause is one which cannot. For example: “I’ve made a lot of new friends” is an independent clause (the subject is “I,” the predicate is “have made a lot of friends”); whereas “who made a lot of new friends” (say, in a sentence like “My neighbor, who made a lot of new friends, became a very likable person”) is a dependen t clause.

Now, there are four basic sentence types: simple, compound, complex, compound-complex.

A simple sentence is composed of ONE INDEPENDENT CLAUSE.

Ex. Every day, I wake up as early as 6 a.m. to go to school.

Mother cooks our breakfast, washes our clothes, and cleans our house. (Note: This is just ONE independent clause. There is just one subject “I” although there are many predicates.)

A compound sentence is composed of TWO INDEPENDENT CLAUSES joined by conjunctions BUT, OR, AND, SO, YET, etc.

Ex. Every day, I wake up as early as 6 a.m. to go to school, but my baby sister wakes up at 9 a.m.

(Note: “I wake up as early as 6 a.m. to go to school” is an independent clause. “my baby sister wakes up at 9 a.m.” is another independent clause. They’re joined by the conjunction “but”)

A complex sentence is composed of ONE INDEPENDENT CLAUSE and TWO or MORE DEPENDENT CLAUSES.

Ex. Every day, I wake up as early as 6 a.m. to go to school although my classes start at 8:30 a.m. (In the dependent clause “although my classes start as 8:30,” “my class” is the subject, “start at 8:30 a.m.” is the predicate.)

A compound-complex sentence is composed of TWO or MORE INDEPENDENT CLAUSES and ONE or MORE DEPENDENT CLAUSE/S.

Ex. Every day, I sleep not later than 11 p.m., and I wake up as early as 6 a.m. to go to school although my classes start at 8:30 a.m. (Note: We just added an independent clause “I sleep not later than 11 p.m.”).

To help you with your sentences:

1. At Damine, I’ve made a lot of new friends, and they helped me adapt to the new environment.

2. At Damine, I’ve made a lot of new friends although I couldn’t help missing my old friends back in Malaysia.

3. At Damine, I’ve made a lot of new friends who were very pleasant and kind-hearted, but my old friends were incomparable.

1. At Damine, I’ve had a lot of fun so my family has decided to live there.

2. At Damine, I’ve had a lot of fun even if the people are so culturally different.

3. At Damine, I’ve had a lot of fun though we were relatively new there, so my cousins and I planned to go there again next year.

Simple: (A simple sentence, also called an independent clause, contains a subject and a verb, and it expresses a complete thought.) A. Some students like to study in the mornings. B. Juan and Arturo play football every afternoon. Complex: (A complex sentence has an independent clause joined by one or more dependent clauses. A complex sentence always has a subordinator such as because, since, after, although, or when or a relative pronoun such as that, who, or which.) A. When he handed in his homework, he forgot to give the teacher the last page. B. The teacher returned the homework after she noticed the error. Compound (A compound sentence contains two independent clauses joined by a coordinator. The coordinators are as follows: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so.) A. I tried to speak Spanish, and my friend tried to speak English. B. Daniel played football, so Chelsea went shopping.

1. At Damine, I’ve made a lot of new friends and had a lot of fun.

2. At Damine, I’ve had a lot of fun because I’ve made a lot of friends.

3. At Damine, I’ve made a lot of friends and, because of that, I’ve had a lot of fun.