Adverbials

Why do we use adverbials?

We use adverbs to give more information about the verb.

We use adverbials of manner to say how something happens or how something is done:

The children were playing happily.

He was driving as fast as possible.

We use adverbials of place to say where something happens:

I saw him there.

We met in London.

We use adverbials of time to say when or how often something happens:

They start work at six thirty.

They usually go to work by bus.

We use adverbials of probability to show how certain we are about something.

• Perhaps the weather will be fine.
• He is certainly coming to the party.

·        An adverbial can be an adverb:

·        He spoke angrily.

They live here.

We will be back soon.

·        or an adverb with a quantifier:

·        He spoke really angrily.

They live just here.

We will go quite soon.

We will go as soon as possible.

·        or a phrase with a preposition:

·        He spoke in an angry voice.

They live in London.

We will go in a few minutes.

·        Where do adverbials go in a sentence?

·        We normally put adverbials after the verb:

·        He spoke angrily.

They live just here.

We will go in a few minutes.

·        or after the object or complement:

·        He opened the door quietly.

She left the money on the table.

We saw our friends last night.

You are looking tired tonight.

·        But adverbials of frequency (how often) usually come in front of the main verb:

·        We usually spent our holidays with our grandparents.

I have never seen William at work.

·        But if we want to emphasise an adverbial we can put it at the beginning of a clause:

·        Last night we saw our friends.

In a few minutes we will go.

Very quietly he opened the door.

·        If we want to emphasise an adverb of manner we can put it in front of the main verb:

·        He quietly opened the door.

She had carefully put the glass on the shelf.

Adverbials - adverbs of manner

 

Adverbs of manner are usually formed from adjectives by adding –ly:

bad > badly; quiet > quietly; recent > recently; sudden > suddenly

but there are sometimes changes in spelling:

easy > easily; gentle > gently

If an adjective ends in –ly we use the phrase in a …. way to express manner:

Silly > He behaved in a silly way.

Friendly > She spoke in a friendly way.

A few adverbs of manner have the same form as the adjective:

They all worked hard.

She usually arrives late.

I hate driving fast.

Note: hardly and lately have different meanings: 

He could hardly walk = It was difficult for him to walk.

I haven’t seen John lately = I haven’t seen John recently.

We often use phrases with like as adverbials of manner:

She slept like a baby.

He ran like a rabbit.

Adverbs of manner and link verbs

We very often use adverbials with like after link verbs:

Her hands felt like ice.

It smells like fresh bread.

But we do not use other adverbials of manner after link verbs. We use adjectives instead:

They looked happily happy.

That bread smells deliciously delicious.

Adverbials - adverbials of place

 

We use adverbials of place to describe:

Location

We use prepositions to talk about where someone or something is.

 Examples:

• He was standing by the table.
• You’ll find it in the cupboard.
• Sign your name here – at the bottom of the page.

Direction

We use adverbials to to talk about the direction where someone or something is moving.

Examples:

• Walk past the bank and keep going to the end of the street.
• The car door is very small so it’s difficult to get into.

Distance

We use adverbials to show how far things are:

Examples:

• Birmingham is 250 kilometres from London.
• We were in London. Birmingham was 250 kilometres away.

Adverbials of time

We use adverbials of time to say:

• when something happened:

I saw Mary yesterday.

She was born in 1978.

I will see you later.

There was a storm during the night.

• for how long :

We waited all day.

They have lived here since 2004.

We will be on holiday from July 1st until August 3rd.

• how often (frequency):

They usually watched television in the evening.

We sometimes went to work by car.

We often use a noun phrase as a time adverbial:

yesterday	last week/month/year	one day/week/month	last Saturday
tomorrow	next week/month/year	the day after tomorrow	next Friday
today	this week/month/year	the day before yesterday	the other day/week/month

Adverbials of probability

We use adverbials of probability to show how certain we are about something. The most frequent adverbials of probability are:

certainly - definitely - maybe - possibly 

clearly - obviously - perhaps - probably

maybe and perhaps usually come at the beginning of the clause:

Perhaps the weather will be fine.

Maybe it won’t rain.

Other adverbs of possibility usually come in front of the main verb:

He is certainly coming to the party.

Will they definitely be there?

We will possibly come to England next year.

but in after am, is, are, was, were:

They are definitely at home.

She was obviously very surprised.

Adverbials - comparative adverbs

 

We can use comparative adverbs to show change or to make comparisons:

I forget things more often nowadays.

She began to speak more quickly.

They are working harder now.

We often use than with comparative adverbs

I forget things more often than I used to.

Girls usually work harder than boys.

Intensifiers:

We use these words and phrases as intensifiers with these patterns:

much - far - a lot - quite a lot - a great deal - a good deal - a good bit - a fair bit

I forget things much more often nowadays.

Mitigators:

We use these words and phrases as mitigators:

a bit - just a bit - a little - a little bit - just a little bit - slightly

She began to speak a bit more quickly

Adverbials - superlative adverbs

 

We can use superlative adverbs to make comparisons:

His ankles hurt badly, but his knees hurt worst.

It rains most often at the beginning of the year.

Intensifiers:

When we intensify a superlative adverb we often use the in front of the adverb, and we use these words and phrases as intensifiers:

easily - much - far - by far