Apparently, he tried to telephone me after receiving my letter.' The underlined words in the above sentence constitute a/an

Question

Accepted Answer

The correct option is 2:
The underlined group of words, "after receiving my letter," functions as a modifier that tells us *when* the action (tried to telephone) occurred, making it an adverbial structure of time. More specifically, it is a **Non-finite adverbial clause of time**. A clause must contain a verb, and in this case, the verb is "receiving." However, because "receiving" is a present participle (a non-finite verb form) and the clause does not contain a finite verb (a verb that shows tense and agrees with a subject), it is classified as non-finite. It begins with the subordinate conjunction "after," clearly indicating its function as an adverbial modifier of the main clause.

The incorrect option is 1:
"Adverbial phrase of time" is incorrect because a phrase lacks a verb altogether. While the underlined words function adverbially and express time, they contain the verb form "receiving," which means it is classified as a clause, not a phrase.

The incorrect option is 3:
"Finite adverbial clause of time" is incorrect because a finite clause contains a finite verb that can be conjugated to show tense and agrees with a subject. If the clause were finite, it might read: "after he received my letter." Since the clause uses the present participle "receiving," it lacks a finite verb.

The incorrect option is 4:
"Adverb of time" is incorrect because an adverb is typically a single word (e.g., *yesterday, soon, quickly*). The underlined portion is a group of words containing a subject (implied, "he") and a verb form ("receiving"), which makes it a clause, not a single adverb.