How to reduce adverb clauses to adverb phrases
THIS quintessentially polite request was made by Forum member Na30r some years back: “If you don’t mind please explain the ‘reducing of adverb clauses.’” (When someone makes a request in such nuanced English, I feel obliged to answer no matter how tough and demanding the question might be.)
Adverbclausereduction is a way of streamlining a sentence by knocking off the formal subject of the adverb clause to make it an adverb phrase instead. It’s admittedly tough to make sense of that baf-
differentiatingan adjectiveclausefromanadjective phrase, on one hand, and differentiating adverbphrase, on the other.
Recall that adjectiveclauses are give more details about nouns.
relative pronouns “that,” “which,” “who,” “whom,” “whose,” or “where” that link the details to the main clause. For instance, in
thatisbeing is for child custody,” the clause “that is being heard in the trial court” is the adjective clause.
Adjective clauses using the relative pronoun “is” (the present tense of “be”) can be reduced by dropping “that is” to yield this adjectivephrase : “being heard
then
takes
this
simpler, more being is for
heardinthetrialcourt child custody.”
In contrast to adjective clauses, adverbclauses are
verbs and verb phrases giving the details and circumstances of the action done by them, particularly in terms of time and duration. Adverb clauses come complete with a subject and a verb, as the clause “while we were dancing” in “Whilewe weredancing , we talked about old times.”
Adverbphrases, on the other hand, only have either a subject or a verb, as in this sentence: “While dancing , we talked about old times.” In contrast to the adverb clause “while we were dancing,” the adverb phrase “while dancing” states the same action but does away with the doer of the action.
clause is therefore to knock off its formal subject to make it an adverb phrase with essentially the same meaning.
Now let’s take up the three possible ways of reducing an adverb clause into an adverb phrase:
(1) Reduction of adverb clauses in sentences involving sametime actions.
When an adverb clause is introduced by “while” or “when,” it can be reduced by dropping both the subject and the form of “be” that goes with it. We saw earlier how this is done for an adverb clause introduced by “while.” For adverb clauses introduced by “when,” as in “Whenheisinthe Philippines, - cay,” both the subject “he” and the verb “is” can be dropped to reduce the sentence to “WheninthePhilippines
(2) Reduction of “when” and “while” adverb clauses that use an active verb instead of “be.”
can be done by changing the active verb in the adverb clause to its “-ing” form. For instance, “WhileI
, I saw sparks on the left wing” can be reduced to “, I saw sparks on the left wing.” Sometimes, “while” or “when” can be dropped as well:“Flyingthatplane, I saw sparks on the left wing.”
(3) Reduction of adverb clauses introduced by “before” or “after.”
changing the active verb in the adverb clause to its “-ing” form. For instance, “thecook, she made him cook her favorite dish” reduces to “hiringthecook, she made him cook her favorite dish.”
How to reduce adjective clauses to adjective phrases)
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