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formed from adverbs denoting time. They are the time, the moment, the instant, immediately, directly and
others. Most of them are used to introduce subordinate clauses denoting the exact moment of the action in the
main clause or the quick succession of the actions in both clauses.
We’ll be married the very moment we find a house.
Immediately he had lain down and closed his eyes, his consciousness went racing on without him.
Directly he saw me, he slipped back into the room.
Some of the temporal conjunctions are not confined to clauses of time. Thus as may be used to join clauses
of cause, manner, concession, comparison and also to introduce parenthetic clauses. The conjunction since may
introduce clauses of reason. The conjunctions when and while may express adversative relations, in which case
they can hardly be considered subordinating conjunctions. When can introduce a clause containing a new piece
of information, not prepared for by the preceding narrative, and thus indicates a quick succession of actions.
The conjunction whenever generally expresses temporal relations, but the idea of time often mingles with that
of concession.
At the sound of that knock she jumped up, when the brass candlestick clattered to the floor. (The
conjunction when expresses the quick succession of actions.)
She left the room in the pursuit of her duties, when no duty could have taken her away if she had wished
to stay.
His life has been ruined for him, when he is but one-and-twenty.(In the last two sentences the conjunction
when expresses a concessive relation.)
The complex sentence with an adverbial clause of manner
§ 167. Adverbial clauses of manner characterize actions, states, qualities, circumstances. Therefore
they may have different reference. The most common conjunctions to introduce them are as and the way.
Adverbial clauses of manner may have different reference:
I. Adverbial clauses of manner may modify the predicate of the main clause by attributing some
quality to it.
I’m sorry I talked the way I did at lunch.
She cooks the turkey exactly as my mother did.
He could do it as no one else could have done.
II. They may refer to attributes or predicatives characterizing a state or quality of a person or non-
person.
Astonished, as one could be in such circumstances, he didn’t give a sign of it.
He was puzzled by the situation, as one could easily be in his place.
III. They may refer to an adverbial modifier, giving additional information or explanation concerning
it.
He said it with contempt, as a grown-up serious man should treat such views.
In the second and the third case the connection between the clauses is rather loose, and the subordinate
clause is generally set off by commas.
The complex sentence with an adverbial clause of comparison
§ 168. Adverbial clauses of comparison characterize the action expressed by the predicate in the main
clause by comparing it with some real or hypothetical circumstance or action.
Clauses of comparison may be introduced by conjunctions as, like, as if, as though, than; correlative