Adverbial Clauses
Reduction of Adverbial clauses to Adverbial Phrases
Reduced Adverb Clauses
 You can reduce adverb clauses to
 present participial phrases (-ing phrases) and
 past participial phrases
Step 1:
 Make sure that the subject of the adverb clause and the
subject of the independent clause are the same:
 While Dan was watching the news, he learned about an
earthquake in China.
 Because Mary was bored, she fell asleep in class.
Step 2:
 Delete the subject of the adverb clause. If necessary, move it
to the subject position in the independent clause:
 While Dan was watching the news, he learned about an
earthquake in China.
 While Dan was watching the news, he Dan learned about an
earthquake in China.
 Because Mary was bored, she fell asleep in class.
 Because Mary was bored, she fell asleep in class.
Step 3:
 Delete the helper verb of the adverb clause.
 While was watching the news, he Dan learned about an
earthquake in China.
 Because was bored, she fell asleep in class.
 New Sentence:
 While watching the news, Dan learned about an earthquake in
China.
 Because bored, she fell asleep in class.
Step 4:
 Delete or retain the subordinator according to the following rules:
 Retain before and since when they refer to time.
 Delete as when it is a time subordinator.
 Delete because, since, and as when they act as reason subordinators.
 Because Bored, she fell asleep in class.
 Delete after, while, and when if the participial phrase comes before the
independent clause, for example
 While Watching the news, Dan learned about an earthquake in China.
 Retain after, while, and when if the adverbial clause follows the
independent clause, for example
 Dan learned about an earthquake in China while watching the news.
Step 5:
 Re-read your sentence once you have reduced the adverbial
clause to a phrase to make sure that its meaning is clear.