Due

Read: Understanding English Grammar, Chapter 6

Meeting Place

We will meet in our usual classroom, Dial 153.  Please bring Understanding English Grammar.

March 19-23, 2001

Although most sentences conform to one of the ten basic sentence patterns we examined earlier this semester, some sentences look much more formidable than those basic patterns.  One of the reasons for this apparent complexity is that many sentences contain adverbials, groups of words that modify verbs.  This week, we will examine several different types of adverbials.
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Types of Adverbials 

Resources

Understanding English Grammar describes the ten basic sentence patterns covered here.

A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language presents detailed descriptions of numerous aspects of English grammar.

Updated March 12, 2001
© Mark Canada, 2001
mark.canada@uncp.edu
 

Adverbials

By Mark Canada
English professor, University of North Carolina at Pembroke

An adverbial is a word or phrase that modifies a verb.  Perhaps the best-known adverbials are single-word adverbs, many of which end in -ly.  In the following sentences, the adverbs appear in red.

  1. She waved the flag flamboyantly.
  2. The children played quietly.
  3. He arrived late.
  4. They drive too fast.
Whole groups of words, some of them quite long, also can modify verbs.  When they do, we call them adverbials.  The following sentences illustrate several types of adverbials, again marked in red
  1. Infinitive: She swims to stay fit.
  2. Noun: They came home.
  3. Noun Phrase: I hope to leave Sunday afternoon.
  4. Prepositional Phrase: The dog ran around the yard.
  5. Participle: They have gone fishing.
  6. Subordinate Clause: She cringes when they split infinitives.
While each of these words and phrases can be adverbials, they also can serve other functions in a sentence.  An infinitive, for example, can be an adjectival or a nominal.  To determine whether a word or phrase is an adverbial, decide whether it modifies a verb.  If it does, it is an adverbial.

Exercise

Rewrite each of the following sentences twice by adding two types of adverbials.
  1. Our daughter eats vegetables.
  2. Their friends left.
  3. I teach English grammar.
  4. The students went.
  5. His team won.