Type of adverbs

 

Adverbials are words that we use to give more information about a verb. They can be one word (angrily, here) or phrases (at home, in a few hours) and often say how, where, when or how often something happens or is done, though they can also have other uses.

How we make adverbials

An adverbial can be an adverb:

He spoke angrily.
They live here.
We will be back soon.

or an adverb with an intensifier:

He spoke really angrily.
They live just here.
We will go quite soon.

or a prepositional phrase:

He spoke in an angry voice.
They live in London.
We will go in a few minutes.

or a noun phrase:

It rained this morning.
They went to Cambodia last summer.

or a clause:

They went to the mountains because they like to ski.
She played tennis when she was young.

Adverbials of direction

Level: beginner

We use prepositions to talk about direction:

across	along	back	back to	down	into
onto	out of	past	through	to	towards

She ran out of the house.
Walk past the bank and keep going to the end of the street.

We use adverbs and adverb phrases for bothlocation and direction:

everywhere	abroad	indoors	upstairs	home
anywhere	away	outdoors	downstairs	back
somewhere	here	inside	up	in
nowhere	there	outside	down	out

I would love to see Paris. I've never been there. (place)
We're going to Paris. We fly theretomorrow. (direction)

The bedroom is upstairs. (place)
He ran upstairs to the bedroom. (direction)

Adverbials of location

Level: beginner

We use prepositions to talk about wheresomeone or something is:

above	among	at	behind	below	beneath
beside	between	by	in	in between	inside
near	next to	on	opposite	outside	over
round	through	under	underneath

He was standing by the table.
She lives in a village near Glasgow.
You'll find it in the cupboard.

 We use phrases with of as prepositions:

at the back of	at the top of	at the bottom of	at the end of
on top of	at the front of	in front of	in the middle of

There were some flowers in the middle of the table.
Sign your name here – at the bottom of the page.
I can't see. You're standing in front of me.

We can use right as an intensifier with some of these adverbials:

He was standing right next to the table.
There were some flowers right in the middle of the table.
There's a wood right behind our house.

We also use adverbs for location:

abroad	here	indoors	upstairs
overseas	there	outdoors	downstairs
away	round	out of doors	home
nearby	around	next door

Children love to play out of doors.
Did you see anybody there?
We have one bedroom downstairs.
Don't leave things lying around.

Adverbials of manner

Level: beginner

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

bad> badly

quiet> quietly

sudden > suddenly

but sometimes there are changes in spelling:

easy > easily

gentle > gently

careful > carefully

The adverb formed from good is well:

You speak English very well.

Adverbs of manner normally come after the verb:

He spoke angrily.

or after the object:

He opened the door quietly.

Adverbials of place

Level: beginner

Most adverbials of place are prepositional phrases:

They are in France at present.
Come and sit next to me.

But we also use adverbs:

abroad	downstairs	nearby	overseas
ahead	here	next door	there
away	indoors	out of doors	upstairs

They are abroad at present.
Come and sit here.

We use adverbials of place to describe location, direction and distance.

Location

We use adverbials to talk about wheresomeone or something is:

He was standing by the table.
You'll find it in the cupboard.
You'll find it inside.
Sign your name here – at the bottom of the page.
Stand here.
They used to live nearby.

Direction

We use adverbials to talk about the direction in which someone or something is moving:

Walk past the bank and keep going to the end of the street.
It's difficult to get into the car because the door is so small.
They always go abroad for their holidays.

Distance

We use adverbials to show how far things are:

Birmingham is 250 kilometres from London.

We live in Birmingham. London is 250 kilometres away.

Essential grammar: 📚

Q and A session 📚

#Teacherpam 📚👩‍🏫