WHAT’S AN ADVERBIAL PHRASE AND
HOW DO YOU USE ONE?
You’ve probably already become familiar with adverbs in your journey to learning English –
but what are adverbials, and how are they different?
In fact, they’re not completely worlds apart! Adverbs are words used to add a description to
a verb – they can describe how the action is taking place, or provide other information.
Adverbial phrases are very similar – they are made up of groups of words used to describe
how something happens.
So let’s take a closer look at how they can be used!
Types of adverbial phrases
There are a few different types of phrases, which are all used to describe different types of
verbs. Let’s take a closer look at them:
Manner phrases
Manner phrases are used to describe how something happens. For example, does
something happen quickly, slowly, dramatically or quietly?
When you are using a manner phrase, you might have more than one word to describe this.
For example:
“She strode into the main room extremely angrily.”
Place phrases
As you might be able to guess, place phrases are used to describe where something
happens. This might be as general as a country or a continent, or it could be as specific as a
room, or an area in the room.
For example:
“I had left my phone over there on the table.”
Time phrases
Another obvious phrase! This one is used to describe when something happens – such as
being early, late or on time.
For example:
“The cat came back home very late at night.”
Two other types of phrase that are very similar to this is the frequency phrase and the
duration phrase – a frequency phrase describes how often something has been happening,
for example:
“We hardly ever go out to eat these days.”
A duration phrase describes how long something has been going on for, for example:
“This medication might only take away the pain for a short while.”
While they all describe a relationship to time, they are used in different ways.
Certainty or necessity phrases
These phrases describe how likely something is to happen, or not happen. They can be used
to describe an opinion or make a prediction for something.
For example:
“I think the train is most likely going to be late again.”
Why use an adverbial phrase?
Just as with an adverb, adverbial phrases are used to provide information – and often, they
give more detailed insight into a particular action or event.
They can also be used to modify or amplify other adverbs, adding an extra dimension to
your language.
For example: you could say, “She was late for the class,” or you could add more detail here
and say “she was always late for the class”.
Your turn
Adverbs and adverbial phrases are both great ways to add extra information to your
language, and make it more interesting. So try practicing with different adverbial phrases –
see if you can make up at lease one example for each type of phrase!