Grammar for Speaking & Listening
  • Time Clauses Part 4

    • Time Clauses Part 4

    Sentence variety is a strategy to enhance the flow of ideas, intensify points, and sustain the interest of your listeners. Varying the length, rhythm, and structure of sentences are three ways to create variety and interest in your speech.

    Objectives

    1. Identify independent and dependent clauses
    2. Explain the purpose of a time clause
    3. Identify a time clause
    4. Use time clauses to narrate and describe in the past

    Time Clauses

    As soon as / once

    These two subordinators have the same meaning when talking about time, so they can be used in the same situations. They are used to refer to the time immediately after something else has happened. The dependent clause is the first action, and the independent clause is the second action.


    As soon as Manuel learned the truth, he stopped trusting her.

    Once Manuel learned the truth, he stopped trusting her.

    Alana called her husband as soon as she landed in France.

     

    Until

    Use until to talk about something that happens up to a particular point in time and then stops. The dependent clause signals the end of the action in the independent clause.

    Emma complains until she gets her way. 

    Until they found new jobs, the couple lived on government assistance.

     

    By the time (that)

    This subordinating phrase is used to indicate an action that occurs before something else happens. The word that is not necessary to use, but you may see or hear it both ways.

    By the time that you arrive, I will already be gone.

    The city was evacuated by the time the storm hit.

    Exercise 1: Listen

    Here is a video of old clips of the infamous Exxon Valdez Oil Spill in 1989. 

     

    After you listen to the video, try to explain the ideas in the video clips using the time clauses in this lesson.


    Exercise 2: Class Activity - Time Clause Hot Potato

    • Your teacher will give you a topic and set a timer. 
    • Your teacher will say a sentence using any of the time clauses from lessons 1-4. The sentence will include the name of someone in the class.
    • The student the teacher names will say another sentence with a time clause using he name of another classmate.
    • The class will "pass the potato" as many times as possible until the timer ends. 
    • If the timer stops during your turn, you "lose" and have to remember and say two of the sentences your classmates said during that round.

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