Relative adverbs

Rule

The following adverbs can be used to join sentences or clauses. They replace the more formal structure of preposition + which in a relative clause:

where, when, why

Examples:

• That’s the restaurant where we met for the first time.
  (where = at/in which)
• I remember the day when we first met.
  (when = on which)
• There was a very hot summer the year when he was born.
  (when = in which)
• Tell me (the reason) why you were late home.
  (why = for which, but could replace the whole phrase ‘the reason for which’)