Reduced Adverb Clauses, Type 1. When reducing clauses with after, before, since, when, and while. There are three steps you must follow. Number 1. Omit, or delete, the subject in the adverb clause. Number 2. Omit be from the adverb clause, if present. And number 3. If no be verb is present, change the verb to a present participle, or an +ing verb. Let's take a look at an example. >> Emily. >> Hey. >> Don't forget our faculty pictures are today. >> That's right! Faculty pictures? Shoot! I'm a mess. This hair. Emily was not aware of the photo day before Jake told her about it. Can we reduce the adverb clause in this sentence? Hm, do you remember the rule I told you about reducing adverb clauses? The subject must be the same in the main clause and the dependent clause. Emily is the subject in the main clause. And Jake is the subject in the adverb clause. So it looks like we cannot reduce this adverb clause. Let's take a look at another sentence. Emily was not aware of the photo day before she talked to Jake. Now Emily in the first clause and she in the second clause are referring to the same subject. Which means we can reduce the adverb clause. Step 1, omit the subject. Step 2, omit be, but as you can see, there's no be verb. So let's move on to step 3. We're going to change the verb to an ing verb, a present participle. Now we've got ourselves a reduced adverb clause. Emily was not aware of the photo day before talking to Jake. Okay, let's take a look at some more examples. Happy Monday! You like this new haircut? All right, in this sentence we have an adverb clause. After she realized she didn't like her hair, Emily decided to get a haircut. Follow the steps to reduce this adverb clause. What does it become when you reduce it? Good! The new phrase should be, after realizing. Let's try again! In this sentence, we have an adverb clause. Since Emily got a haircut, she has been a lot more confident. Can you reduce the adverb clause? It's easy. Since getting a haircut, Emily has been a lot more confident. [MUSIC] Hey, Jake, how's it going? >> Nice. >> [LAUGH] Okay, Emily danced around without a care while she was at work. Can you reduce the adverb clause, while she was at work? Notice, since the main verb is be, we will be left without a verb at all. Emily danced around without a care while at work. How about this one? While Jake was watching Emily dance, she had a puzzled look on her face. Can you reduce it? Good, while watching Emily dance, Jake had a puzzled look on her face. Okay, let's look at one more important rule regarding reducing time clauses. We can use when in the same way that I just showed you how to use the other subordinators of time. For example, when Jake saw Emily dancing ridiculously, she took a candid snapshot. You know we can reduce that to. When seeing Emily dancing ridiculously, Jake took a candid snapshot. However, there is another common way to reduce adverb clauses that contain the subordinator when. And that's by changing the word when to upon. So, the reduced adverb clause would become, upon seeing Emily dancing ridiculously. This is only true with when. Let's try another example. When Emily walked into the room, she struck a pose. Can you change this adverb clause to a reduced adverb clause in more ways than one? Here's one way. When walking into the room, Emily struck a pose. How about the other way? Good, upon walking into the room, Emily struck a pose. Something else to be aware of when reducing adverb clauses is to make sure to change any unclear pronouns. You can see that, in the original adverb clause, the proper noun, Emily, is used, and the pronoun, she, is thus used in the main clause. So when eliminating the subject from the now reduced adverb clause. It also makes sense to change the pronoun back to the proper noun as to avoid confusion. Okay, let's quickly talk about where can we put these reduced adverb clauses. A reduced adverb clause most commonly comes at the beginning of a sentence. If it does, it's followed by a comma. It can also come at the end of a sentence. In this case, no comma is needed. And finally, it is possible for it to come in the middle, right after the subject. If this is the case, we need a comma before it and after it. Okay, that concludes this lesson on reducing adverb clauses of time. I hope you enjoyed it. Now, I've got to get busy and get to the hair salon to fix this crazy hair. Thanks for listening.
