RELATIVE ADVERBS

An adverb (where, when, or why)
that introduces a relative clause, also known as a relative adverb clause.

 Introduce   

¨The relative adverbs where, when, and why also introduce adjectival clauses, modifiers of nouns denoting place (where clauses), time (when clauses), and of the noun reason (whyclauses)

¨

¨An adverb which introduces a relative clause is called a relative adverb. Examples are: when, where, why, whatever, wherever etc. Study the following sentences:

¨Here the words where, when, why and how are relative adverbs because they introduce the relative clauses that follow immediately.

The relative adverb when can be replaced by ‘in/on which’. Where can be replaced by ‘in/at which’. Why can be replaced by ‘for which’. 

 Study the following sentences:

* That's the restaurant where we met for the first time.
(where = at/in which)

* I remember the day when we first met.
(when = on which)

* Tell me why you were late home.
(why = for which, but could replace the whole phrase 'the reason for which')

* I don’t know the day when he came. (= I don’t know the day on which he came.)

* I know the house where he lives. (= I know the house in which he lives.)

* Do you know a shop where I can buy used laptops? (= Do you know a shop at which I can buy used laptops?)

* Do you know the reason why she cried? (= Do you know the reason for which she cried.) 


 Example

 

"The relative adverbs where, when, and why are exemplified

¨The following adverbs can be used to join sentences or clauses. They replace the more formal structure of preposition + which in a relative clause:

¨That's the restaurant where we met for the first time.
(where = at/in which)

¨I remember the day when we first met.
(when = on which)

¨There was a very hot summer the year when he was born.
(when = in which)

¨Tell me (the reason) why you were late home.
(why = for which, but could replace the whole phrase 'the reason for which')

 

¨"Like relative pronouns, relative adverbs introduce relative clauses.

¨- "The relative adverb when is used to modify a noun phrase of time. Such noun phrases include nouns that denote periods of time such as, day, week, hour, minute, month, year, and similar events.
- The relative adverb where is used to modify a noun phrase of place, location, or space.
- The relative adverb why is used to modify a noun phrase with the noun reason". . . The relative pronouns that or on + which can be substituted for the relative adverbwhen. . . .

¨"The relative adverb where begins a clause that modifies a noun of place.

¨
"A when clause modifies nouns of time. For example, 'My favorite day of the week is Friday, when the weekend is about to begin.'

 

¨The relative adverbs can be replaced by relative pronouns or by prepositional phrases with relative pronouns as complements."

¨"She smoked in the bathtub, where we'd find her drowned butts lined up in a neat row beside the shampoo bottle."

¨The reason why worry kills more people than work is that more people worry than work.