Sentence Complexity and Embedding

Adverb Clauses

Now that you have gained familiarity with the forms and functions of adverb clauses, it is time to look closely at their meanings and use. Activity 14.5 will introduce the interaction of tenses with adverb clauses.

Activity 14.5: The Sequence of Tenses

Study the following sentences containing adverb clauses. Find the verbs in both the main and adverb clause. Then categorize the sentence as either grammatical or ungrammatical.

Click on each verb to change the color to green. When all the verbs in any one sentence are selected, a text box will appear on the right. Drag Grammatical or Ungrammatical as appropriate into each text box.

The Meanings and Use of Tense in Adverb Clauses

The sequence of tenses becomes very important in sentences with adverb clauses of time. The problem of tense shifting can occur very easily and can result in ungrammatical sentences. Sentences 8, 9, 11, and 12 in Activity 14.5 all represent ungrammatical sentences because the verb tenses don’t match up appropriately with the subordinating conjunctions chosen.

The improper sequencing of tenses can also create misunderstandings even when the sentence is not ungrammatical. Unintended meanings can be created instead of presenting events as they actually happened. Sentence 7 in Activity 14.5 shows one such unintended meaning.

Particularly difficult for NNSEs are the choices of simple or progressive tenses in both the main and the subordinate clauses. Much work is needed to make the distinctions in meanings clear.

Sentences 10, 11, and 12 also highlight one peculiar feature of tenses with future time reference in adverb clauses. When an adverb clause of time or condition refers to future events, the tense in the adverb clause is not presented with a future tense, but rather with a present tense verb form. Compare the following examples:

1. Before we make cookies, we will buy the ingredients.
?2. Before we will make cookies, we will buy the ingredients.
3. After we make the cookies, we will eat them.
?4. After we will make the cookies, we will eat them.
5. If we eat the cookies, we will get fat.
?6. If we will eat the cookies, we will get fat.

In these examples, 1, 3, and 5 are the most natural-sounding to a native speaker of English, and sentences 2, 4, and 6 are at least odd, even if some speakers accept them. These sentences prove the rule about tense use in adverb clauses of time and condition with future reference.

Grammar Muscle Heads might be curious about how present tense verbs came to signify future events when a future form is available. The answer is that English has only two true tenses: past and nonpast. Every event that does not take place in the past takes place in the nonpast. What we now call present tense is actually this nonpast form.

In the absence of a verb form to distinguish future events from present events, NSEs pressed a modal auxiliary, will, into use. In sentences with no subordinate clauses, the newly created future form is used, but in sentences with subordinate clauses of time, the older form pops up.

Adverb Clauses 4