Learn English Grammar: The Adverb Clause

Do you get confused when you see long sentences with lots of commas and sections? You need to learn about clauses! Once you understand and can recognize the different types of clauses in an English sentence, everything will make sense. What is the difference between noun clauses, adjective clauses, and adverb clauses? Adverb clauses show relationships, like reason, contrast, condition, time, purpose, and comparison. In this lesson, we will look at these relationship types that make adverb clauses so important in English. I will also teach you when to use commas with adverb clauses. This will help you understand very long sentences made up of several clauses. Remember that as long as you can break down all the components of a sentence and understand the relationships between them, you can understand any sentence in English!
Watch Adam's series on clauses:
Dependent Clauses • Advanced English Gramm...
Noun Clauses • Advanced English Gramm...
Adjective Clauses • Learn English Grammar:...
Take the quiz: www.engvid.com/learn-english-...
TRANSCRIPT
Hi. Welcome back to www.engvid.com. I'm Adam. In today's lesson we're going to look at the adverb clause. Okay? Now, this is one of the dependent clauses that we're going to look at. I also have a lesson about noun clauses and adjective clauses. I have a lesson about the independent clause, which is different from all of these. Today we're looking at the adverb clause, which depends on the grammar book you're using. Again, they like to use different words. Some people call this the subordinate clause. "Subordinate" meaning under. Right? "Sub" means under, it's under the independent clause, means it's... The independent clause is the more important one, the subordinate clause is the second.
Now, the thing to remember about adverb clauses: What makes them different from noun clauses or adjective clauses is that they don't modify words. Okay? A noun clause modifies or acts as a specific function to something in the independent clause. It could be the subject, it could be the object of the verb, for example. Or it could be a complement. But it's always working with some other word in the independent clause. The adjective clause-excuse me-always modifies or identifies a noun in the sentence, in the clause, etc.
The adverb clause shows a relationship, and that's very, very important to remember because the subordinate conjunctions, the words that join the clause to the independent clause has a very specific function. The two clauses, the independent clause and the subordinate clause have a very distinct relationship. Okay? So here are some of those relationships: Reason, contrast, condition, time, purpose, and comparison. Okay? There are others, but we're going to focus on these because these are the more common ones. And there are many conjunctions, but I'm only going to give you a few here just so you have an idea how the adverb clause works. Okay?
So, for example, when we're looking at reason... Okay? Before I give you actual sentence examples, I'm going to talk to you about the conjunctions. These are called the subordinate conjunctions. They very clearly show the relationship between the clauses, so you have to remember that. So: "because", okay? "Because" means reason. So, I did something because I had to do it. Okay? So: "I did something"-independent clause-"because"-why?-"I had to do it". I had no choice. That's the relationship between the two. "Since" can also mean "because". "Since", of course, can also mean since the beginning of something, since a time, but it can also mean "because" when we're using it as an adverb clause conjunction.
Contrast. "Contrast" means to show that there's a difference. Now, it could be yes/no, positive/negative, but it doesn't have to be. It could be one idea and then a contrasting idea. One expectation, and one completely different result. Okay? You have to be very careful not to look for a positive or a negative verb, or a positive or negative anything else, but we're going to look at examples for that. The more common conjunctions for that is: "although" or "though"-both are okay, mean the same thing-or "whereas". Okay? "Although I am very rich, I can't afford to buy a Lamborghini." Okay? So, "rich" means lots of money. "Can't afford" means not enough money. Contrasting ideas. They're a little bit opposite from what one expects. Contrast, reason.
Condition. "Condition" means one thing must be true for something else to be true. So, for the part of the independent clause to be true-the situation, the action, the event, whatever-then the condition must first be true. "If I were a... If I were a rich man, I would buy a Lamborghini." But I'm... Even though I am a rich man... Although I am a rich man, I can't afford one. So we use "if", "as long as". Again, there are others.

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I was about to say the same, I could understand each word that He spoke, and I'm not a native speaker. I've been studying to become an English teacher, but my course is focused on linguistics so it sucks because I love gramatics, I wanted to study both. Many of his videos talk about the interference of the mother language when you're speaking/learning English, and this is called Interlanguage (mother language interference), we study this in linguistics. Well anyway when it comes to English I just love to chat.

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same!

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[@dvelopp]

Adam, thanks for a great lessons. I just wanted also to mention about the commas. My personal opinion is that many languages have the same structures and for many it's common to always put the comma here in writing and make a pause in pronouncing. For instance, both in Russian and Ukrainian, we put comma there. Without putting it, it will be extremely difficult to get what the sentence is about.

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Me too

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Very glad to learn more sentence structure! I hope to learn phases in the futures. Thanks.

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@@peterhunt135 me too

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Already do actually

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Thank you, Adam. You are doing a great job for us. Although this topic isn't either new or difficult for me, I've enjoyed this video, because I love the way you explain complicated things as well as your voice and the manner of speaking.

[@chloelee9644]

Many thanks for this great important lesson, Adam.

[@apeatomica3424]

Hello Adam, greatings from Italy! First of all thank you very much for sharing knoledge, it helps a lot. On studying this topic, I faced the 'Reduction of adverb clauses to modifying adverbial phrases' one. Since very useful in order to improve advanced writing skills... would you please make a COMPLETE lesson on that? I emphasise the COMPLETE concept because in general the topic is taught in a very 'standard' way. Most of the time the reduction strategy is taught only for TIME and REASONS relationships types and also neglecting the 'when' or 'as soon as' substitution with 'upon' or 'on', or the usage of a noun phrase in case of a starting 'after', 'since' and 'before' adverb clause. It would be very interesting to learn about other possible relationships reduction strategies (i.e. CONDITION) and also the possibility to have a reduction even if dependent and main clauses' subjects are different. Of course, other suggentions would be very appreciated ;) T&R, AB13

[@ridhoinaja]

i have been waiting for this one. it is finally here. thanks Adam. now I know the differences between this and the other two dependent clauses.

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The best at teaching grammar! Thank you Adam!

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Hi

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[@marcioardanuy3089]

It´s Very nice seeing all these types of clauses. In portuguese we also have theses clauses. Actually, even the meanings are similar in both languages. Pretty cool. Keep up with this awesome job you`ve been doing, Adam. Greetings from Brazil.

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Thank you for take the time to teach us English. I love your method too

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Never have I ever enjoyed learning grammar so much ❤️

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though he teaches grammar deductively, his lessons are so interesting that I've never missed one of them.

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Hi Adam, your videos are such as interesting and understandable videos, I am really learning with you. Could you give us an explanation about reduce relative clauses, it would be extremely perfect if you did it

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thanks! Nice video!Now I understand about adverb clause.

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Thank you so much Adam for the wonderful session :-)

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I vote for embedded clauses in the next video :) Thank you for all that work Adam!

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Perfect! I will receive entire mark for adverb clause part & that's all because of your crystal clear teaching sir, thanks!

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Another great lesson! You deliver the information in such a clear way. Clauses can be tricky. I will encourage my students to watch this video if they're struggling! Thank you. :)

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Hi, Adam, could you give us a lesson that let us know how to build a sentences which have noun clause in adverb clause or adjective clause. Thanks.

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