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# adverbial

noun (an adverbial, adverbials); adjective (adverbial)

«adverbial» in the English dictionary: everyday — its meanings, how the lessons use it, and examples, each with its tree on Mova.

## Everyday

1. An adverbial is a word, phrase or clause that does the job of an adverb, telling us how, when, where or how often something happens: «in the morning», «after lunch», «with a smile». [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/adverbial/#m1)
2. A fronted adverbial is an adverbial placed at the start of a sentence, usually followed by a comma: «Later that day, we went home.» [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/adverbial/#m2)

### In the lessons

In English grammar lessons (especially in England), pupils learn to use fronted adverbials to vary how sentences start and to add a comma after them. Adverbials can be single words («Suddenly,»), phrases («Under the bridge,») or clauses («When the bell rang,»). The adjective «adverbial» describes anything that works like an adverb: «an adverbial phrase».

### Examples

- «After school» is an adverbial of time. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/adverbial/#x1)
- Start your sentence with a fronted adverbial. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/adverbial/#x2)
- «As quick as a flash, the fox ran off» begins with an adverbial. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/adverbial/#x3)
- Put a comma after a fronted adverbial. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/adverbial/#x4)
- «In the garden» is an adverbial of place. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/adverbial/#x5)
- «With great care, she lifted the egg» uses a fronted adverbial. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/adverbial/#x6)
- An adverbial can be one word or a whole phrase. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/adverbial/#x7)

### Note

Plural «adverbials». An adverb is one word; an adverbial can be a word, a phrase or a clause. Do not forget the comma after a fronted adverbial. Spelling: «ad-verb-ial».

## On Mova

- [Trees and pragmatics of «adverbial» in the school dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/adverbial/): every meaning and example parsed by Mova, with its dependency tree and frames.
- [«adverbial» in the school dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/school/w/adverbial.html) on Mova free.