Adverbial Phrases and Clauses

Focus 1: Indentifying Phrases and Clauses Phrases and clauses can be used to answer many Wh-

questions in sentences.

A phrase is a group of related words. Noun phrases : noun + determiner/modifier

Who, whom & what ask about noun phrases Verb phrases: helping verb + verb

What...do…asks about verb phrases Prepositional Phrases: preposition + noun phrase

Adjective prepositional phrases give more info about nouns. Which asks about adjective phrases

Adverbial prepositional phrases: Give more information about verbs. Where, when, how,

why, how long, how often and how much ask about adverbial phrases.

Focus 1 Continued Clauses are groups of related words that contain

both a subject and a verb. Independent clauses functions as sentences.

A man robbed the bank. Dependent clauses cannot function as sentences.

Have you heard that a man robbed the bank? Adjective clauses give more information about noun

phrases. A man robbed the bank that we visited yesterday.

Adverbial clauses give more information about verb phrases. A man robbed the bank before the police could arrive

to catch him.

Focus 2: Basic Adverbial Position

Adverbs answer questions like how, how often, how much, where, when & why.

There is a basic order for adverbial information

Verb phrase

Manner Place Frequency Time Purpose or Reason

What….do How Where How often When Why

Bill lifts weights

vigorously at the gym every day afer work to fight stress

Focus 3: Position and Order of Adverbial Phrases

Shorter adverbial phrases come before longer adverbial phrases. Maria goes to the gym after work every Monday,

Wednesday and Friday.

When there are 2 adverbial phrases of the same kind, the more specific one comes first. Many students eat lunch at the mall in Columbia.

Move one adverbial to the beginning of a sentence if there are more than 2-3. Every Friday, Young Min carefully takes her dog for a

walk around the neighborhood.

Focus 4: Putting Adverbial Phrases at the Beginning of a Sentence

Often we put adverbials in the beginning of a clause or sentence. If there are several other adverbs/adverbial phrases,

or if the object of the verb phrase is very long. Every other week, Jose carefully organizes his

notebooks in chronological order. In her closet, Lucia found her favorite shoes behind a

box on the floor. In order to emphasize adverbial information.

Carefully and slowly, lift your foot off the break and step on the accelerator.

To show logical relationships between sentences. It snowed 3 feet last week. As a result, we were out

of school for a week.

Focus 5: Position of Adverbial Clauses

Before the Main Clause

For emphasis: As soon as she finished the

test, she felt very relieved.

To establish context: Before she moved to

America, she had never seen a scantron.

To show sequence: After I wake up, I always

take a shower.

After the Main Clause

Clauses of place (except those that begin with whenever or everywhere) Linda shops where her Mom

shops.

Clauses of result with so that. Isaac studied hard so that he

could pass the midterm.

Clauses of reason with for. Rachel went to school early

for she needed help with homework.