Sentence-Joining Particles

Today I took a more in-depth look at sentence-joining particles on Tae Kim's guide. I've been meaning to get around to this for a few days now, but each time I looked at it, my brain would hurt. Well, today I finally forced myself to review it, and it wasn't as bad as I thought. I'll try to summarize what I understand so far.

I can use けど or が (which is different from the identifier particle) to join two sentences with a "but." けど is more casual or conversational, while が is more polite or formal. Examples:

日本語は難しいけど、大好き。
日本語は難しいが、大好き。

Japanese is difficult, but I like it a lot.

日本語は簡単だけど、大好き。
日本語は簡単だが、大好き。

Japanese is easy, but I like it a lot.

In this case, I have to use the declarative だ after 簡単 because it's a na-adjective. I have to do that for nouns, as well, but not i-adjectives.

I can use から or ので to join two sentences with a word similar to the English "so." The format is [Reason] から/ので [Result]. Examples:

猫は静かだから、好き。
猫は静かなので、好き。

Cats are quiet, so I like them.

Since 静か is a na-adjective, I have to add だ when I use it with から and な when I use it with ので. Initially this was hard for me to remember, but I try to remember that the two n's go together (な with ので).

日本語は難しいから、好き。
日本語は難しいので、好き。

Japanese is difficult, so I like it.

With these I don't have to use だ or な because I have an i-adjective beforehand. I also don't have to use them if the noun or adjective is conjugated in any way, or if ですis there for the polite form. They're only used with a plain noun or na-adjective.

Finally, there's のに that can be used as an "in spite of" equivalent. Examples:

日本語は難しいのに、好き。

In spite of Japanese being difficult, I like it.

There are more natural ways to translate the sentence, but that captures the more literal meaning and ordering of the words.

日本語は簡単なのに、好き。

In spite of Japanese being easy, I like it.

In this case, I have to add the な after the na-adjective to ensure it is grammatically correct.

I can also do partial sentences, which was difficult to understand at first, but I just have to remember the correct placement of the particles. I'm going to practice a couple below.

だけど、楽しい。
But it's fun.

難しいから。
Because it's difficult.

だから、簡単。
So it's easy.

静かなのに。
In spite of it being quiet.

なので、面白い。
That's why it's interesting.

I think that's everything for now. As a disclaimer, this is NOT at all meant to be a copy-paste of Tae Kim's guide. This is me practicing using the vocabulary and grammar I have learned from his guide, on my own time. Being able to do this consistently from memory helps a great deal in learning Japanese grammar. Still, to make this clear, I'm going to credit the lesson I used in my studies at the end of any posts like this one.

Credit goes to Tae Kim's lesson seen here.