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When You See an Adverb Clause,
You'll Know |
In the song "When The Saints Go Marching In," jazz
musician Louis Armstrong sings about entering heaven:
Yes, I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in
Armstrong is expressing his desire to be among the
saints going to heaven. The line “when the saints go
marching in” is an adverb clause – sometimes called an
“adverbial clause.”
Adverb clauses are dependent clauses that act as adverbs
– they modify a verb, or adjective or another adverb.
Like all clauses, adverb clauses contain a subject and a
verb.
By now, you have all used adverb clauses every day in
your English speaking and writing. For example, when you
tell someone what happens when, before, after, because
or if something else happens, you are using adverb
clauses. We hear or read adverb clauses everywhere
English is spoken or written, including in
entertainment.
Adverb clauses show relationships between events,
actions or ideas. They use signal words called
“subordinating conjunctions” to indicate the type of
relationship.
For example, in the line “when the saints go marching
in,” the subordinating conjunction when tells us there
is a time relationship to the main clause “I want to be
in that number.”
There are four main types of adverb clauses: time,
cause, contrast and condition.
Time Clauses
Let’s continue with adverb clauses of time – often
called “time clauses.”
You heard the jazz example using the conjunction when.
There are more than a dozen additional conjunctions that
introduce time clauses.
Some common ones include: before, after, since, while
and until.
Listen to an example with after:
After I left work yesterday, we checked out the new art
market.
The time clause is “After I left work yesterday.” The
subject is I and the verb is left. And the main clause
is “we checked out the new art market.” The subject is
we and the verb is checked out.
Most adverb clauses keep the same meaning when the
position of the adverb clause and main clause are
changed in a sentence.
For example, the sentence “After I left work yesterday,
we checked out the new art market” has the same meaning
as “We checked out the new art market after I left work
yesterday.”
The only difference is punctuation. When the adverb
clause comes before the main clause, use a comma.
For the rest of the program, listen to the example
sentences and take mental note of their subjects and
verbs. Each sentence will have two subjects and two
verbs.
Contrast
OK, let’s move on to adverb clauses of contrast. These
adverb clauses present an unexpected result between the
information in the adverb clause and main clause.
In his song “I Still Love You,” British pop singer
Terrence Trent Darby uses the contrasting conjunction
though in an adverb clause:
And though we may not stay together
I still love you
Here, “though we may not stay together” is the adverb
clause and “I still love you” is the main clause; it
gives the unexpected result.
Two other common conjunctions for contrast clauses are
although and even though – which also mean “despite the
fact that.”
Although is more formal than though, which is very
common in spoken English. For added emphasis, we use
even though.
Note however that, when the although- or though-clause
comes after the main clause, it can mean “but.” Listen:
I’ll be in New York in June although I’m not sure which
days.
However, for this meaning, we often put though at the
end of a sentence and it is not part of an adverb
clause. Listen:
I’ll be in New York in June. I’m not sure which days,
though.
Cause
Now onto cause- clauses, also called “reason- clauses.”
These adverb clauses show us the reason or cause for
something. And, the main clause gives the result. Some
common subordinating conjunctions are: because, since,
as and so.
Because- clauses are used when the reason is not yet
known to the listener. Listen for the cause in the
adverb clause and the result in the main clause:
He stayed awake until midnight because he had to finish
his report.
The because- clause “because he had to finish his
report” shows the cause and the main clause “He stayed
awake until midnight” gives the result.
As- and since- clauses are used when the reason is
already known to the listener. But as and since are
somewhat formal. For everyday spoken English, we often
replace those words with the conjunction so. Listen to
two examples – one using since...
Since it’s sunny today, we can ride our bikes in Central
Park.
...and one using so:
It’s sunny today so we can ride our bikes in Central
Park.
When we use a so- clause to connect a cause to its
result, the so- clause must come second.
And note something else: the cause in a so-clause does
not contain the conjunction so; instead the main clause
does.
Condition
And finally, we have conditional clauses, also called
“conditionals” or “if clauses.” You will remember our
past programs on conditionals, so we won’t spend too
much time on them.
As you’ll recall, conditional clauses show that one
thing must be true for something else to be true. In the
song “If I Ruled the World,” American rappers Nas and
Lauryn Hill imagine a different world:
If I ruled the world
(Imagine that)
I'd free all my sons
I love them love them, baby
Note that many conditional clauses use conjunctions
other than if, such as unless, in case and whether. And,
in very formal written English, the conjunctions were
and should often replace if.
OK, now let’s return to your mental notes. Did you find
the subjects and verbs in the adverb clauses and the
subjects and verbs in the main clauses?
Write your findings in the comments section.
I’m Alice Bryant.
Alice Bryant wrote this story for Learning English. Caty
Weaver was the editor. |
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