How to Use Where, When, and Why as Relative Adverbs

Khan Academy

This educational video introduces students to the concept of relative adverbs—specifically focusing on the words "where," "when," and "why." Using a friendly illustrated character named Peggy the Dragon, the narrator demonstrates how these words function beyond their common role as question starters. The lesson distinguishes between asking a question (e.g., "Where are you from?") and using a relative adverb to connect two clauses and modify a noun (e.g., "That is the cave where I grew up"). The video explores three primary relationships: "where" relates to place, "when" relates to time, and "why" relates to reasons. Through humorous examples involving dragon traits like breathing fire and strange events like raining fish, the narrator explicitly maps how each adverb connects a dependent clause to the main sentence. The video concludes with a brief etymological expansion, discussing archaic forms like "whence" and clarifying the famous Shakespearean line "Wherefore art thou Romeo" to correct the common misconception that "wherefore" means "where." For educators, this resource serves as an excellent direct instruction tool for Common Core Language standards regarding relative adverbs (L.4.1.a). It effectively scaffolds learning by starting with prior knowledge (question words) and bridging to complex sentence structures. Teachers can use the video to launch lessons on sentence combining, complex sentence formation, and adding detail to writing. The clear visual distinction between the question examples and the relative clause examples helps visual learners grasp the syntactic shift required to use these words correctly.