Adverbial Clauses

An adverbial clause is a dependent clause that functions as an adverb. In other words, it contains a subject (explicit or implied) and a predicate, and it modifies a verb.

    I saw Joe when I went to the store. (explicit subject I)
    He sat quietly in order to appear polite. (implied subject he)

According to Sidney Greenbaum and Randolph Quirk, adverbial clauses function mainly as adjuncts or disjuncts. In these functions they are like adverbial phrases, but due to their potentiality for greater explicitness, they are more often like prepositional phrases (Greenbaum and Quirk,1990):

    We left after the speeches ended. (adverbial clause)
    We left after the end of the speeches. (adverbial prepositional phrase)

Contrast adverbial clauses with adverbial phrases, which do not contain a clause.

    I like to fly kites for fun.

Adverbial clauses modify verbs, adjectives or other adverbs. For example:

    Hardly had I reached the station when the train started to leave the platform.

The adverbial clause in this sentence is "when the train started to leave the platform" because it is a subordinate clause and because it has the trigger word (subordinate conjunction) "when".

    a. Reason
    Because Marianne loved Willoughby, she refused to believe that he had deserted her.

    b. Time
    When Fanny returned, she found Tom Bertram very ill.

    c. Concession
    Although Mr D'Arcy disliked Mrs Bennet he married Elizabeth.

    d. Manner

   Henry changed his plans as the mood took him.

    e. Condition
    If Emma had left Hartfield, Mr Woodhouse would have been unhappy.

(Jim Miller, An Introduction to English Syntax. Edinburgh Univ. Press, 2002)

Examples:

    "This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."
    (newspaper editor to Senator Ransom Stoddart in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, 1962)


    "All human beings should try to learn before they die what they are running from, and to, and why."
    (attributed to James Thurber)


    Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it."
    (Helen Keller, "Optimism: An Essay," 1903)


    "The greatest thrill in the world is to end the game with a home run and watch everybody else walk off the field while you're running the bases on air."
    (Al Rosen, third-baseman for the Cleveland Indians, 1947-1956)


    "Again at eight o’clock, when the dark lanes of the Forties were five deep with throbbing taxi cabs, bound for the theatre district, I felt a sinking in my heart. Forms leaned together in the taxis as they waited, and voices sang, and there was laughter from unheard jokes, and lighted cigarettes outlined unintelligible gestures inside."
    (F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, 1925)


    "The swift December dusk had come tumbling clownishly after its dull day, and, as he stared through the dull square of the window of the schoolroom, he felt his belly crave for its food."
    (James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, 1916)


    "Though we thumped, wept, and chanted "We want Ted" for minutes after he hid in the dugout, he did not come back."
    (John Updike, "Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu," 1960)


    "I drank some boiling water because I wanted to whistle."
    (Mitch Hedberg)


    "I generally avoid temptation unless I can't resist it."
    (Mae West)


    "When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag, carrying a cross."
    (Sinclair Lewis, 1935)


    "When I was coming up, I practiced all the time because I thought if I didn't I couldn't do my best."
    (Herbie Hancock)


    "And when the broken hearted people
    Living in the world agree,
    There will be an answer, let it be.
    For though they may be parted there is
    Still a chance that they will see
    There will be an answer, let it be."
    (John Lennon and Paul McCartney, "Let It Be")


    "If I ever opened a trampoline store, I don't think I'd call it Trampo-Land, because you might think it was a store for tramps, which is not the impression we are trying to convey with our store."
    (Jack Handey, Deep Thoughts, 1992)


    "According to legend, when Lady Godiva pleaded with her husband, the Earl of Mercia, to cancel a burdensome tax he had levied against his subjects, he agreed to do so only if she rode naked through the city."
    (Jim Hargan, "The City of Lady Godiva." British Heritage, January 2001)


    "Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted."
    (Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture, 2008)