"Reduced adverb clauses include present or past participles with or without prepositional (or adverbial) phrases and/or adverb clause markers, external/peripheral to the independent clause structure, for example, The professor looked at me, smiling broadly, or While walking to class that night, I noticed this poster, or After releasing her first CD, she made a hit movie. With full or reduced adverb clauses, the independent clause retains its structure and meaning if the subordinate construction is completely omitted. In academic texts, reduced adverb clauses integrate information compactly, while retaining the meanings and functions of full adverb clauses. Reduced relative clauses refer to the shortening of a relative clause which modifies the subject of a sentence. Reduced relative clauses can modify the subject NOT the object of a sentence. Let's quickly review relative clauses to learn more. Once you understand the rules, take the reduced relative clauses quiz to test your understanding. Relative clauses, also known as adjective clauses, modify nouns much like adjectives.