Practise Turning Adverbials into Fronted Adverbials

Can you spot the adverb in the sentence below?

Chloe put on her slippers quietly.

Quietly is the adverb in our sentence as it tells us how Chloe put on her shoes.

You may remember that lots of adverbs end in -ly and they describe how, where or when the action in the sentence is done.

Adverbs are a type of adverbial.

Adverbials

Adverbials are words or phrases that tell us how, when or where things happen.

Look at the sentence below:

Jaya read her book in the garden.

Which words tell us when Jaya read her book?

In the garden is an adverbial of place, telling us where the action was done.

We can also have adverbials of time telling us when the action was done.

Jaya read her book in the evening.

Also, we can have adverbials of manner telling us how the action was done.

Jaya read her book with enjoyment.

Fronted adverbials

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

With enjoyment, Jaya read her book.

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 when the boy walked his dog.

In the morning, 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.

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

Happily, the boy walked his dog.

In this activity, you'll be looking out for adverbials and fronted adverbials.

Keep your eyes peeled for the commas after fronted adverbials.