In the sentence "It looks as if it’s going to rain", I am wondering whether "as if it’s going to rain" is acting as a predicative clause or an adverbial clause of manner.
Thank you very much!
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Sign up to join this communityIn the sentence "It looks as if it’s going to rain", I am wondering whether "as if it’s going to rain" is acting as a predicative clause or an adverbial clause of manner.
Thank you very much!
It looks as if it’s going to rain
Actually it plays the role of both.
A predicative clause is a subordinate clause that functions as a predicative of the main clause, where “it looks” is the main clause and “it’s going to rain” is the subordinate clause introduced by the subordinate conjunction “as if”.
The term is used to denote expressions that follow a copula (=linking verb), e.g. be, seem, appear, look, etc.
An adverbial clause is a dependant clause that functions as an adverb. It is usually introduced by a subordinate conjunction.