I’ve been learning about Adverbial Clauses, and there are a bunch of different kinds.
Sure, because they have different purposes.
Yeah, but it’s a lot to keep track of.
Hm.
How do you feel about Prepositional Phrases?
Oh, those are easy.
Then maybe it would help you know that
Adverbial Clauses and Prepositional Phrases are almost the same.
What?
How?
Tell me what you know about Prep Phrases.
Well, they start with a preposition, and they add more information to the sentence.
What kind of information?
Like, where or when something happened, or who else was involved,
or the reason behind something.
There are lots of different ways a Prep Phrase could add info.
It sounds like they usually modify verb phrases, like adverbs do.
Yeah, but some modify nouns.
Very good, but for now, we’ll just focus on adverbial prep phrases to keep things simple.
Okay.
How do you know what kind of information they add?
Well, it depends on the preposition; that’s why we have so many.
Great.
And where in a sentence do these phrase go?
Usually at the end, though some can be at different spots.
Nice job.
All of these things are more-or-less true for Adverbial Clauses as well.
Really?
Really.
Adverbial Clauses give us more information about the verb phrase,
which is why they’re named after adverbs.
Well, that makes sense.
They can tell us where or when something happened,
or why, or how, and so on.
Also, they usually come at the end – or more specifically: after the verb phrase they modify.
But Adverbial Clauses don’t have prepositions, do they?
Technically, no.
They start with conjunctions instead.
But a lot of those conjunctions are similar to or even identical to prepositions.
Cool. That makes things easier!
Yeah, it does.
And again, the conjunction you use depends on function of the clause, and vice-versa.
Can you show me some?
Sure.
Time Clauses tell us when the verb happened, obviously,
and they use conjunctions like ‘before’, ‘when’, ‘as soon as’, ‘until’, ‘any time’;
things like that.
Yeah, that one’s easy.
Clauses of Purpose show us why a verb was done and what the intended result would be.
They use conjunctions like ‘so’, ‘in order that’, and ‘in case’.
Clauses of Result are similar, except they reveal what actually happened, not the intent.
Oh, okay.
And Condition Clauses use conjunctions like ‘if’ and ‘unless’, right?
They explain what has to be true in order for the rest of the sentence to come true.
Right.
Concession Clauses show contrast, conflicts, and exceptions.
They use conjunctions like ‘although’ and ‘however’.
You have to be careful with these because they’re a little different from their corresponding prepositions.
Oh yeah, that reminds me.
If Adverb Clauses and Prep Phrases are almost the same, then what’s the difference?
Remember that a clause is a group of words centered around a subject and a verb.
If the group is missing one or both of those, then it’s not a clause; it’s a phrase.
And that’s it?
The rest is the same?
Pretty much.
They carry the same meaning and we use them in the same way.
In fact, lots of Prepositional Phrases are just shortened forms of Adverbial Clauses.
Wow, that makes things a lot easier.
I mean, I need to remember the difference between a phrase and a clause, but I got this!
Great!
Why do we even need to study the different types of Adverb Clauses separately?
For a few reasons.
One is to know what all the conjunctions are and the differences between them.
And whether or not they’re the same as prepositions.
Yep.
Two: sometimes there are restrictions on which verb forms are used,
as in Time Clauses and Condition Clauses,
but we won’t get into those now.
Oh.
And Three: to get a sense of how essential that clause might be.
What do you mean?
Some modifiers are essential,
which means that if you take them away, then the sentence loses part of its meaning or significance.
Other modifiers are non-essential.
So they might be nice to have, but they don’t add anything really important.
Yes.
And this is true for both Prep Phrases and Adverb Clauses.
Why do we need to know how essential it is?
As a rule-of-thumb, essential clauses only go after the verb they modify.
Non-essential clauses can go after the verb or before it, or even at the beginning of the sentence.
Interesting.
An exception is if the Adverb Clause is a cause,
then we might put it before the rest of the sentence, which is the effect.
That makes sense, because causes happen before effects do.
Another rule-of-thumb is that non-essential clauses are set apart by punctuation –
typically commas – while essential clauses are not.
So it’s like: If it’s important, you want to keep it close to the rest of the sentence.
If it’s not important, the punctuation lets you know this is just some bonus information on the side.
Well put!
Thanks.
The good news is that most of the time,
it’s fairly obvious whether the Prep Phrase or Adverb Clause should be essential.
When it’s not obvious, the person making the sentence can probably decide for themselves,
depending on what they want to convey or on their own style.
Nice.
Yeah, I’ve got a few more details to figure out, but Adverb Clauses don’t seem so bad now.
Great.
Give us a recap.
Adverbial Clauses are like Prepositional Phrases, except they need both a subject and a verb.
They start with conjunctions,
which tell us the type of information that the clause adds to the verb phrase.
Most of these clauses go at the end without additional punctuation,
unless they’re not that important.
Great job!
Keep in mind that Prepositional Phrases are almost as complex as Adverbial Clauses,
and you know how to use those, so you can definitely figure out Adverb Clauses as well.
Awesome!