Meaning
All embedded clauses (aka: subordinate clauses) serve a particular role within their host clause, which is typically the main clause of the sentence. In the case of Adverbial Clauses, they act as modifiers that provide additional information about the verb phrase or some other part of the host clause in which they are embedded. Consider the following examples (the Adverbial Clause is bold, and the linker is italicized):
- “Jules is upset because she lost her job.”
- “The ocean stretches as far as the eye can see.”
- “Ever since summer began, we haven’t had a single drop of rain.”
- “The actor, although he had rehearsed all night, suddenly forgot his lines.”
- “You should stay home today if you’re still feeling sick.”
- “Suna can swim faster than Patrick can paddle.”
The first Adverbial Clause explains why Jules is upset, the second reveals the extent that the ocean stretches, the third establishes a time frame, and so on.
The information that most Adverbial Clauses clauses add to their sentences is non-essential — in other words, the rest of the sentence would still make sense without these embedded clauses. However, some Adverbial Clauses are essential in that they complete the meaning of the main clause.
Look again at the final example above. On its own, the main clause is “Suna can swim faster,” which may be a grammatically complete simple sentence, but its full meaning is lost without the clarification of the embedded clause “than Patrick can paddle.” Therefore, this embedded Adverbial Clause is essential.
Structure
The Embedded Clause
Clause Composition
What sets Adverbial Clauses apart from prepositional phrases is the clause structure. Every clause must have a subject and a predicate (which at the very least includes a verb). By contrast, prepositional phrases do not include verbs.
An Adverbial Clause should be structured like a standard declarative clause preceded by a linker called a Subordinating Conjunction, aka a Subordinating Linker or subordinator.
If we take the Adverbial Clause examples from above as standalone simple sentences, they would read: “She lost her job.”; “The eye can see.”; “Summer began.”; “He had rehearsed all night.”; You’re still feeling sick.”; and “Patrick can paddle.” Notice how each of these are simply declarative sentences. To turn these into Adverbial Clauses again, we merely add a subordinator at the front, then embed these clauses into main clauses.
Clause Placement
Adverbial Clauses most often come after the particular elements of the host clause that they modify. However, non-essential Adverbial Clauses are more flexible in their placement and might appear at the very start of the sentence.
Punctuation
While non-essential Adverbial Clauses are more flexible in their placement, they also need to be set apart by punctuation, especially if they come at the beginning or middle of the complex sentence. The most common punctuation used to separate clauses is commas; but dashes, parentheses, or brackets may instead be used. Each variation of the following example sentence is valid:
- “The actor, although he had rehearsed all night, suddenly forgot his lines.”
- “The actor — although he had rehearsed all night — suddenly forgot his lines.”
- “The actor (although he had rehearsed all night) suddenly forgot his lines.”
Essential Adverbial Clauses should never be set apart by punctuation.
Subordinating Conjunctions
Subordinating Conjunctions establish the clauses that follow as subordinate clauses and link them to their host clause (usually the main clause). The subordinator should always come at the very front of the Adverbial Clause. They function similarly to adpositions, and some of the subordinating conjunctions are either similar to or even identical to adpositions.
While most Subordinating Linkers are a single word, some can be multi-word, as in ‘even though’ or ‘by the time’.
The conjunction used at the head of the subordinate clause dictates the type of Adverbial Clause. Though this is not an extensive list, here are some of the common Subordinating Conjunctions associated with each type of Adverbial Clause:
- Comparison — as [modifier] as • than
- Condition — as long as • given that • if • provided (that) • supposing • unless • whether
- Concession — although • as much as • despite the fact that • even if • however • whereas
- Location — anywhere • everywhere • where • wherever
- Manner — as • as if • as though • however • like • the way (that)
- Purpose — in case • in order that • lest • so • so that
- Reason — as • because • for • given that • since
- Result — so [modifier] that • such [noun phrase] that
- Time — after • as • as soon as • before, by the time • once • since • until • when • while
Usage
There are different categories of Adverbial Clauses based around the different ways these subordinate clauses can modify their host clause’s verb phrases, or whatever element they’re modifying. Each category has certain Subordinating Conjunctions associated with it. While the different categories largely function the same way across the board, a few of them have some additional rules or attributes to consider.
Comparison Clauses
Comparison Clauses are used to compare the degree of a modifier of one clause relative to another clause. Comparison Clauses usually feature the linker than and come after comparative adjectives or adverbs.
- eg: “The beach is closer than the mountains are.”
- eg: “My cat can prowl more quietly than your dog can move.”
If the elements of the two phrases are similar or of equal value, we instead use as ____ as, wherein the modifier falls into the blank between as and as.
- “This sofa is as comfortable as that chair is.”
The central adjectives and adverbs not only apply to the main clause, but also are understood to be a part of the embedded clause.
Condition Clauses
Condition Clauses most frequently start with if, though other conjunctions include unless, when, provided that, given that, etc. They establish a condition that is expected to be met in order for the main clause to then come true; the main clause is typically contingent upon the realization of the Condition Clause.
- eg: “You’ll receive $1M if you win the contest!”
- eg: “If you truly love her, you should let her go.”
For these examples, the events of the main clauses (receiving $1M and letting her go) are expected to happen after their corresponding events in the Condition Clauses (winning the contest and loving her) have happened. If those conditional events do not happen, then there is no expectation for the resulting events of the main clause to happen either. (In some contexts, there’s still a possibility that those results may happen anyway, while for other contexts those results will absolutely not happen since the condition was not met.)
The main clause in these situations is sometimes referred to as the Result Clause since it logically follows the condition clause. But they are still the main clauses of their sentences, and they’re very different from embedded Adverbial Clauses of Result (see below).
Concession Clauses
Clauses of Concession draw a contrast against the main clause. They might reveal how a situation doesn’t meet expectations, or they may reveal a silver lining amidst a rough situation. For example:
- “However much the children complained, the teacher would not adjust her policy.” ← a contrast between wants and how those wants were not met
- “Nina didn’t show up to the party even though she promised to be there.” ← a contrast between what Nina said and what she did
- “Even if you offered me a million bucks, I’d still be too scared to go skydiving.” ← a contrast between incentive and fear
- “Despite the fact that dark clouds covered the sky all day, it never rained.” ← a contrast between expectation and reality
Clauses of Manner
Clauses of Manner answer the questions “How?” or “In what way?” They might be used when a simple, one-word adverb does not suffice. For example:
- instead of ‘desperately’: “as if his life depended on it“
- instead of ‘accommodatingly’: “however she likes it“
- instead of ‘dutifully’: “the way I was taught“
Adverbial Clauses of Manner sometimes feature unreal situations when their linkers are as if, as though, or like (in order to express the extent of the probably real situations of the main clauses in which they are embedded).
Clauses of Place or Time
Clauses of Place
Clauses of Place state the location where something is or where something happens, and they match the host clause’s verb phrase to that same location. While there are many adpositions for location or direction, there are only a few Subordinating Conjunctions for location:
- where — general application, usually for known places
- everywhere — for all relevant places
- anywhere — for a yet unknown place; or for no place in particular
- wherever — for a place yet to be determined
Clauses of Time
Clauses of Time state the time when something is or when something happens, and they match the main clause’s verb phrase to that same time. There are many Subordinating Conjunctions for time to express when the host clause’s event starts, how long its duration lasts, or when it ends in varying combinations relative to the embedded clause.
One thing special about Time Clauses is that future events are usually expressed through present tenses. For example, “Text me once your plane lands,” might be said before the plane takes off; while the landing would take place in the future, the Present Simple ‘lands’ is used here. (“Text me once your plane will land,” is not correct grammar.)
Clauses of Purpose, Reason, or Result
There is a fair amount of overlap in meaning among these three categories:
- Clauses of Reason are retrospective: they express why the event of the main clause was initiated. That cause may have been either deliberate or accidental.
- Clauses of Purpose express the intention behind the main clause. They might express why the event of the main clause happens if it is deliberate (but this doesn’t apply if it is accidental). They also tend to communicate the intended result, whether or not that matches with the actual result.
- Clauses of Result are prospective: they express what happens next because of the event of the main clause. That may be either the intended result or an incidental one.
Advanced Concepts
Tense Restrictions
While most Adverbial Clauses can feature any tense, Time Clauses and Condition Clauses do have some restrictions on how tenses are used.
- Time Clauses rarely feature any type of future tense, even when communicating a future meaning. For example, we might say, “I’ll follow wherever you lead,” not “
I’ll follow wherever you will lead.“ - Most Condition Clauses make use of backshifting, which is the process of setting a verb form one step further in the past than its meaning. This is done for many applications of the unreal mood. For example, we might say, “If you see her tomorrow, please give her this message,” but not “
If you will see her tomorrow, …“
See the relevant sections or pages of this encyclopedia for more details.
Adverbial vs. Relative vs. Content Clauses
Among the list of Subordinating Conjunctions are when and where, which means that certain Adverbial Clauses, Relative Clauses, and Content Clauses might look similar. Let’s take a look at two sets of examples:
- Time Clauses:
- “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” ← as an Adverbial Clause
- “This might be the day when the going gets tough.” ← as a Relative Clause
- “This might be when the going gets tough.” ← as a Content Clause
- Place Clauses:
- “There weren’t any tornadoes where I grew up.” ← as an Adverbial Clause
- “This is the small town where I grew up.” ← as a Relative Clause
- “Let me show you where I grew up.” ← as a Content Clause
For each of these sets, the three embedded clauses look identical. In fact, they even all have the same meaning. The difference is how they are used in the sentence — specifically, what role they serve within their host clauses. The Adverbial Clauses act like adverbs (modifying verb phrases), the Relative Clauses act like adjectives (modifying noun phrases), and the Content Clauses act like nouns.
The type of subordinate clause is not determined by its meaning, but rather by its function.
Essential vs. Non-Essential
An essential subordinate clause is one that provides crucial information about or completes the meaning of the main clause. In such cases, the main clauses do not fully make sense without their embedded clauses. But if the main clause is complete and comprehensible even without its embedded clause, then that embedded clause is non-essential.
Note that essential does not refer to the structure or grammar of the main clause, only its meaning.
The formatting of an Adverbial Clause may depend on whether it is essential:
- Placement
- Essential clauses only come after the main clause’s verb phrase.
- Non-essential clauses may come at the beginning, middle, or end of the main clause.
- Punctuation
- Essential clauses are not set apart by any punctuation.
- Non-essential clauses at the beginning of the sentence have a comma after them, or they may instead have parentheses or brackets on either side.
- Non-essential clauses in the middle of the sentence may have commas, dashes, parentheses, or brackets on either side.
- Non-essential clauses at the end of the sentence may have parentheses or brackets on either side, or they may have a comma before them if the clause is rather long. However, if the embedded clause is fairly short, it often has no punctuation at all.
Teaching Tips
Similar to Prepositional Phrases
Embedded Clauses may seem complicated at first glance, but learners should know that Adverbial Clauses are actually very similar to prepositional phrases, which students should already be very familiar with. Adverbial Clauses have similar functions, structure, placement, etc. except that a) they use Subordinating Conjunctions instead of adpositions, and b) they need to be full clauses instead of noun phrases or non-finite phrases.
Insights to English recommends reviewing everything that students know about prepositional phrases before diving into Adverbial Clauses.
What are Clauses?
Since one of the two differences between a prepositional phrase and an Adverbial Clause is the clause structure, students should be taught what exactly a clause is.
On a similar note, Adverbial Clauses are the simplest of the three types of subordinate clauses, so we recommend that students learn about Adverbial Clauses first — whether that means broadly covering Adverbial Clauses in general or focusing on a specific category like Time Clauses or Condition Clauses — to help students become familiar with how clauses work before exploring topics like Relative Clauses or the various Content Clauses.
Insider Access
Visit our How to Teach Adverbial Clauses page on www.insightstoEnglish.com for a demonstrational video, bonus notes, printouts, a slideshow for your class, practice activities, and more.
Further Reading
Insights Articles
- project: For the Good
- project: Essay Prompts: This or That
- How We Term Clauses
Intermediate Topics
CEFR Levels B1-B2: Pre-Intermediate to Upper Intermediate courses
