Question

What are used when you want the second part of your sentence to help explain the first part? The second part part happens as a result of the first.

For example:
I like cheese, therefore I ate the cheese!

Answer 1

The second part of the is sentence is a dependent clause.

Explanation:

A dependent clause cannot stand alone as a sentence although it still has both a noun and a verb. A dependent clause will happen as the result of the first part of the sentence, or depend on it for its meaning.

I like cheese, therefore I ate the cheese!

Here is an independent sentence: "I like cheese."

Followed by a dependent clause: therefore I ate the cheese." which is the result of the independent sentence.

Here is another example:

I wanted to put the cat outside, but first I had to catch the cat.

In this case the independent clause (stand alone sentence) still comes first, but it can only happen `after` the dependent clause is accomplished.

BTW, I was able to catch the cat. He likes cheese, too.