Question

Combine the following sentences by creating an adverb clause that comes after the main clause.


The storm cased a power failure. Peter started the new generator.

Answer 1

First of all, are you clear on what a clause is? Then, are you clear on what an adverb clause is? I want to establish a baseline, so I can work from what you know.

To reiterate (in case these are not clear to you), a clause is any related group of words with BOTH a subject and a finite verb. A finite verb is just a verb that has been given a form that shows person (I, you, he, she, it, us, you plural, or they) and tense (time). So, for example, "to be" or "be" is not a finite verb. It is the opposite in fact. But "am" and "are" and is" are finite verbs. So are "was" and "were."

So a clause is a group of related words with both a subject and a verb that has been inflected for person and tense. Now a clause can be independent, which means it can stand on its own as a sentence. Or a clause can be dependent, which means it cannot.

Dependent clauses can be of several types: those that function like nouns, those that function like adjectives, and those that function like adverbs.

Right now, you are concerned only with that last category.

Adverbial clauses are clauses (so: subject and finite verb) that begin with words like these --

after
although
because
before
unless
when
while

That's just a few of the many possibilities. For a list of the most common of these subordinating conjunctions, see this page --

http://grammar.yourdictionary.com/parts-of-speech/conjunctions/list-of-subordinating-conjunctions.html

In your question, there are two short independent clauses. You are going to hook them together with a subordinating conjunction -- one of those words, or a word like it, in the list just above. That's it. Just convert one clause from independent to dependent by adding one of those words to the front of it, and then combine the two clauses into one sentence.

Got it?