Learn About Fronted Adverbials of Place

Read the sentence below:

Rosie stirred the ingredients in the bowl.

In this sentence, which words tell us where Rosie stirred the ingredients?

In the bowl tells us where Rosie was stirring them.

This is an example of an adverbial.

Adverbials add more information to a sentence by telling us where, when or how something happens.

In this activity, we’ll be looking at adverbials of place which tell us where something happened.

Adverbials of Place

Jaya read her book in the garden.

In the garden is an adverbial of place telling us where Jaya read her book.

Can you find the adverbial in this sentence?

Joe kicked the ball on the playground.

On the playground is an adverbial of place telling us where the ball was kicked.

Fronted Adverbials

We can move the adverbial to the start of the sentence and our sentence would still make sense.

On the playground, Joe kicked the ball.

This is now called a fronted adverbial because it is at the front of the sentence.

Can you see the comma after the fronted adverbial?

If we put an adverbial at the start of a sentence, we must put a comma afterwards.

Here is a simple sentence about this picture:

The boy walked his dog.

We can add a fronted adverbial to the start of this sentence telling the reader where the boy walked his dog.

In the park, the boy walked his dog.

Can you think of a fronted adverbial to add to the sentence below?

Beth ate a tasty pizza.

How about:

In the restaurant, Beth ate a tasty pizza.

In this activity, you’ll be on the hunt for adverbials and fronted adverbials. Remember they can be more than one word and tell us where something happened.