Relative Adverbs

• They give information about people, places or things found in a sentence. 
• The relative adverbs are as follows: where, when and why. 
• They join clauses and sentences together.  
• They are used to start a description. 
• These descriptions are called adjective clauses.  

Types of Relative Adverbs 

The relative adverb will be bold. The nouns and the description (adjective clauses) will be in italics. 

Where 

It introduces an adjective clause describing a place. 

• I know the town  where  the monk lives. 
• The restaurant where  we went to eat last week is closed. 
• Let’s not sit here, where  we’ll definitely get splashed. 

When  

It introduces an adjective clause describing a time. 

• Remember the days  when we could buy ice-cream for 15 cents. 
• I recall that month when we went for skiing. 
• Did you know the date when they gave out ice-creams for free? 

Why  

It introduces an adjective clause describing a reason. 

• Tell us (the reason) why you left team. 
• Mr. Manson is telling us (the reason) why not wearing a helmet is dangerous. 
• Our teacher told us (the reason) why Sundays are holidays . 

Note: (We don’t need to write ‘the reason.’ It is also already understood. So, we leave it out.)