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in spite of thisat the time whenin a similar waydespiteduringlikealthoughwhileas ifIn the following examples, the objects of the prepositions, and the verbs of thesubordinate clauses are underlined.Preposition: They were upset because of the delay.Conjunction: They were upset because they were delayed.Preposition: Despite the rain, we enjoyed ourselves.Conjunction: Although it rained, we enjoyed ourselves.Preposition: We stayed indoors during the storm.Conjunction: We stayed indoors while the storm raged .Preposition: It looks like rain.Conjunction: It looks as if it will rain.In the above examples, it can be seen that the prepositions because of, despite, duringand like have the noun objects delay, rain and storm; whereas the subordinateconjunctions because, although, while and as if introduce subordinate clausescontaining the verbs were delayed, rained, raged and will rain.It should be noted that like is sometimes used as a subordinate conjunction in informalEnglish.e.g. It looks like it will rai n.However, this use of like is considered incorrect in formal English.See Exercise 4.4. Connecting adverbsConnecting adverbs are often used to show the relationship between the ideasexpressed in a clause and the ideas expressed in a preceding clause, sentence orparagraph. In the followi ng examples, the connecting adverbs are printed in bold type.e.g. I wanted to study; however, I was too tired.We knew what to expect. Therefore, we were not surprised at what happened.In the first example, the connecting adverb however shows that there is a conflictbetween the idea expressed in the clause I was too tired and the idea expressed in thepreceding clause I wanted to study. In the second example, the connecting adverbtherefore shows that there is a cause and effect relationship between the ideaexpressed in the sentence we knew what to expect, and the clause we were notsurprised at what happened.Connecting adverbs are si milar to conjunctions in that both may be used to introduceclauses. However, the use of connecting adverbs differs from that of conjunctions inthe ways indicated below.