On a test, my son was given this question:

Question

People waiting for passsenger arrivals paced back and forth, which showed their anxiety. Adjective or Adverb Clause? He choose adjective because of the 'which' and because he felt it was modifying 'people waiting for passengers'. Our book lists 'which' under adjectives, but not under adverbs. He missed this question and doesn't understand the difference very well.
Thank you,
Patty

Answer 1

You need to reread that sentence carefully to see what the problem is. It's a poorly written sentence, for one thing. There is no one noun to which "which" is referring.
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/pronouns1.htm
Scroll down and read about relative pronouns.

Your son was right to consider a clause beginning with "which" to be an adjective clause. It should be. But this one seems to be modifying "paced back and forth" which makes it more adverbial in its use. As I said, it's a poorly written sentence, and I'd ask the teacher about it.

Answer 2

The clause is definitely an adverb clause, modifying paced. The problem is "which" -- ordinarily used as a relative pronoun introducing an adjective clause.

After checking several websites, however, I found one that includes "which" as a subordinate conjunction.

http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/elc/studyzone/410/grammar/advcls.htm

http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/grammar_subordinate.html

Answer 3

A great way to get to Vancouver, British Columbia, is by train.

Is 'train' the subject or "way" or even Vancover, BC? And is 'to get' or 'is' the predicate?
Thank you,
Chris

Answer 4

The main verb is "is" and the complete predicate is "is by train." Everything else is part of the complete subject.

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Thank.