
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.
Read clear grammar explanations and example sentences to help you understand how adverbials are used. Then, put your grammar knowledge into practice by doing the exercises.
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Hello Alice,
The normal word order here is the first one. We usually say where to before who with. It's not grammatically wrong to say it in a different order, but it is not the normal way and not how we would phrase it.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello inaki
It's true that adverbs of frequency tend to come before the main verb (in this case, 'been'), but I'm afraid that adverbs can go in many different positions. You can read more about this on the Where adverbials go in a sentence page in this section, as well as this Cambridge Dictionary page.
Hope this helps.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Imran 26
I wouldn't say it that way, because it sounds as if, for example, nouns are adverbials by themselves, which is not true. An adverbial can include a noun (e.g. in a prepositional phrase), but that's a different story.
I'm not sure if I've answered your question. Please feel free to ask again if not.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Imran 26,
An adverb is a kind of word. An adverbial is any word, phrase or clause which functions as an adverb in the sentence. Thus, adverbial is a bigger category which contains adverbs as well as other things.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Nehashri
It sounds to me as if you do understand this, but I'll explain it briefly in case that helps.
An adverb is a single word (e.g. 'quickly'). An adverb phrase can be simply an adverb (e.g. 'quickly') or an adverb plus other words (e.g. 'very quickly', which is two adverbs, the main one being 'quickly').
An adverbial phrase functions as an adverb, but does not necessarily contain an adverb. Prepositional phrases (e.g. 'in two years'), for example, often function as adverbs: 'I will graduate in two years'. Note that there is no adverb in this adverbial phrase.
In this grammar, adverbs and adverb phrases are also referred to as 'adverbials' -- the term 'adverbial' is used for any word or phrase that has an adverbial function in a sentence.
Hope that clears it up for you.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Lavern,
We actually have a page devoted to the topic of quantifiers. I think you'll find it useful. It also has some exercises so you can test yourself on the topic. You can find the page here:
https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/english-grammar-reference/quantifiers
We can't give detailed general explanations of language items in the comments sections of the pages but if you have any specific questions we'll be happy to answer them. Including an example to illustrate your question is helpful too.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello DanyalParacha
What do you need help with?
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello quds001
Well done, that's a great (and correct) summary!
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello agie,
That is fine, yes.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello agie,
You can say 'help you learn' or 'help you to learn'. There is no difference in meaning.
'
Help you learning' is not correct. You could say 'help you with your learning'.We wouldn't say 'the top part of the story'. I'm not sure what you mean, but perhaps we would say 'the first part of the story' or 'the first paragraph of the story', or 'the beginning of the story'.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Prap
It can be both. A noun phrase can be used adverbially -- this is another way of saying that the noun phrase functions as an adverb in a sentence (in this case, for example, it can tell you more about the frequency of an action) -- and in that sense it is also an adverbial phrase.
I hope that helps you make sense of it.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Rafaela1
Strictly speaking, 'well' is the correct form here, but people often use 'good' instead of 'well' in informal speech in a sentence like this.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Bonne,
I'm not sure what you mean by 'analyse' here. Is this a sentence which you've written and would like to know if it is correct, or a sentence you have found somewhere and which you don't understand?
If the sentence is yours, then we would need to know what you want to say in order to tell you if the sentence is OK or not. If the sentence is from somewhere else, then we would need to know the context before we comment on it.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello briskmusk,
Both 'as though' and 'as if' are possible here and have the same meaning as 'like'.
The exercise asks for either 'as' or 'like', however, not a two-word answer.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Lal,
I'm afraid there is no way to tell this in advance. You simply have to memorise each item. Compound nouns can change their spelling over time as well, so an item may begin as two separate words but over time (many years) may become one word.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Lal,
'courtship' is not a compound noun, since '-ship' is a suffix rather than a noun in this case, but the others you mention could be considered compound nouns. Please see this Cambridge Dictionary page for an introduction to this topic. If you have any specific questions after that, please let us know.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Ahmed,
Yes, 'breathe' means to draw in air through your mouth or nose. If we stop doing this for any more than a short time we die!
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Ahmed Imam,
Generally, we use 'think of' to mean 'imagine' or 'dream of' and 'think about' to mean 'consider'. Both can be used when we are remembering something in a nostalgic way, and I think in your example both forms are possible.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Nisala Jayasuriya,
I can see the two sentences but I don't see a question! What would you like to ask us?
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team