Relative Adverbs

Lesson 1 Relative Adverbs

Essential Question

How can we give specific information about place, time, and reason when we communicate?

Grammar in the World

What Do I Know?

Use the interactive exercise below to see how much you already know about relative adverbs:

Building Blocks

Grammar is a complex system and structure of language. Mizzou Academy Grammar Lab spotlights one skill (or block) at a time. It is also helpful to see how each skill works together with other, related blocks to build the language structure as a whole. You may find the following resource topics helpful as context for this lesson:

Learn About Relative Adverbs

You have heard that adverbs describe verbs–they give us more information about how an action is performed. In these examples, notice how the adverb in bold gives more information about the underlined verb:

Gandalf forcefully urges Bilbo to leave The Shire.
Bilbo Baggins reluctantly agrees to go on the journey.
The Dwarves mistakenly think Bilbo is a burglar.
Bilbo fondly misses home.
The trolls brutally attack the dwarves.

You also are familiar with some of the keywords we use to ask questions.

Question Word	Purpose	Example
Where	Place	Where is the ring?
When	Time	When did you find the ring?
Why	Reason	Why are you wearing the ring?

You can also use these words as adverbs. Relative adverbs are a special type of adverb that give us more information about place, time, and reason in a sentence using these question words–where, when, and why.

Relative Adverb	Purpose	Question	Answer
Where	Place	Where is the ring?	The ring is where I left it last night.
When	Time	When did you find the ring?	I found the ring while lost in a cave.
Why	Reason	Why are you wearing the ring?	I don’t know why I wear it so much.

Look at the following sentences and notice the relationship between the first and second clauses (underlined) and how the relative adverb connects the two clauses.

Smaug the dragon lived where the mountains rose up in the north.
He traveled there when he discovered the great wealth of the Dwarves.
I learned why some artists draw Smaug with cat-like features.
Smaug spends his time where he can snuggle into a hoard of treasure.
He is there when Bilbo Baggins enters the cave.
That is why Bilbo is afraid.

Relative adverbs are connection pieces between two clauses in a sentence. They give us more information about the first clause by showing more information about place, time, and reason. They modify a specific verb in the second clause, but the second clause as a whole works together to provide the extra information.

Do I Get It?

Use this interactive exercise to test your knowledge of relative adverbs. Read each of the following sentences, and choose the correct relative adverb to make the sentence complete.