Confusions about adverbial clause?

Question

I'm a non-English speaker. I'm confused by adverbial clause. I wonder if the following sentences are correct in formal English writings.

1. While Tom was reading novels, Jim was reading comics because novels were difficult.

2. Although English is hard, I still like it because it is being used worldwidely.

I think these sentences are not idiomatic. I can use compund-complex sentences to rewrite sentence 1, as "Tom was reading novels, but Jim was reading comics because novels were difficult." But are sentence 1 and 2 correct? Do westerners use that kind of sentence structures? Thanks.

Thank Amaragold, nutterbutter475 and all the people who answered my question.
Amaragold's examples make the thing clear. But it seems that in formal English writings writers would like to use some devices, such as present participle, past participle and indefinite to indicate sentences' inner logic rather than use so many subordinate words, such as altough, because,etc.
Some English writing books suggest learners to shorten "long" sentences in order to avoid the overuse of complex or compound sentences.
Therefore, I wonder if writing teachers in America or other English-speaking countries would like to make the same suggestion.

Answer 1

Both your sentences were correct (except for the"worldwidely"), and either could be encountered in normal conversation.

Whether or not they are correct for formal writing is another question. Actually, they are probably a bit too idiomatic to fit in formal writing. In conversation, you have the opportunity to immediately correct any misconceptions or to expand on a subject. In writing you get one chance, so it must be complete.

Take your number 1 - "...novels were difficult." More difficult to what? To read? To understand? To carry in your back pocket?

Number 2 follows the same line with the "hard". Learn? Understand? Spell?

On your real question: In general, the more formal the writing, the greater the number of compound and compound-complex sentences. These types of sentences are necessary to be sure the complete thought is given and to reduce any chance that the reader will not understand the information.

You may hear comments about "legalese" - the way lawyers write long, convoluted sentences. These are often difficult to follow at first reading, but they are written in that complex manner for a reason - they can only be interpreted in one way, and hence are not going to lead to a legal fight over what they mean.

It is true that there has been a tendency in recent years to use fewer and fewer compound sentences in publications in the US.
A large part of the cause of this has been the dumbing down of the educational system. To be blunt, kids are not being taught English today. All they get is a superficial survey of the language. They will not even try to understand anything with long sentences or unfamiliar words.

Answer 2

For sentence 1, I might say:
While Tom was reading novels, Jim was reading comics because he found novels too difficult.
or
While Tom was reading novels, Jim was reading comics because novels were more difficult to read.
or
Tom liked to read novels, but Jim preferred comics because he found them easier to read.

For sentence 2, I might say:
Although English is difficult to learn, I still want to learn it because it is used throughout the world.
or
Although English is a difficult language, it is worthwhile to learn because it is used worldwide.
(worldwidely here would be incorrect)

I could definitely understand the meaning of those two sentences, and they were mostly correct (I'm not sure about adverbial clauses...I'd have to look up what an adverbial clause is) but I thought examples of how a native English speaker might say those sentences would be helpful. If you need more help, or if anything I said was confusing, add more information to your question.

Good luck!

Update: I don't claim to be a good writer, but I think that when a writer is writing a book or something, the most important thing is to get the message across. I don't think anyone really thinks about the actual structure of the sentence, except maybe some English teachers. I suggest you read more books written in English, like a novel. This might help you better than studying about sentence structure.

Answer 3

initially, your question could be 2 sentences. You used a comma incorrectly. the main mistake every physique makes with using commas is misplacing the comma with the separation of a word. A word on the beginning up of a sentence (that is crossed out and you will nevertheless have an entire sentence) is often observed by making use of a comma. that comparable word on the top of a sentence isn't. Ex: After eating lunch, I went to the action pictures. (word is on the beginning up.) I went to the action pictures after eating lunch has no comma. There are a plethora of regulations for commas, yet this one is the only that journeys human beings up the main. (I used a comma in the final sentence with the aid of fact the two communities of words on the two area could desire to the two be sentences of their very own suitable. i wish this enables.

Answer 4

Sentence one is abit awkard but its okay. Sentence two should say worldwide instead of worldwidely (which is the adverb form).
Hope that Helps!!