Adverbials

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Hi I want to know the structure of the following sentence - I think about him 1) is the verb "think" an intransitive verb 2) If the verb "think" is an intransitive verb, then what follows is a prepositional phrase ("about him") that modifies the verb 3) If the phrase modifies the verb "think", is the phrase an adverbial phrase (function) ? 4) If it is an adverbial phrase, then what does that phrase answer; WHY, WHERE, MANNER, WHEN, TO WHAT DEGREE?

Hi Peter Chin,

As I understand it, 'think' is intransitive here, but I'm not sure how I'd label the function of the prepositional phrase. This is a great question for an in-depth syntax course, but I'm afraid we don't generally go into this much detail on our site since our main purpose is to help people learn to use English.

I'd suggest two resources for you. The first is a sentence parser. You can find one here, but there are others that I'm sure you can find by doing an internet search for 'sentence parsing' or something similar. The second is the English Language and Usage Stack Exchange, where there are loads of details about English syntax and you can ask questions.

Hope this helps.

All the best,

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello.I have a question about nouns. Few days ago I read a post on Facebook by one of the NatGeo wild photographer ,He wrote 'A pride of lion .and another one was 'A trio of giraffe. So my question is why did he use lion instead of lions and giraffe instead giraffes. Is it incorrect saying a pride of lions? Also how about trio of giraffe.

Hi Salum Hilali,

It's an interesting question! Both lion and giraffe are countable, and a pride of lions and a trio of giraffes would be the normal forms to use. I can't be sure why the photographer didn't use those forms. It could be a language or typing mistake, or alternatively it could be to create an uncountable meaning of lion and giraffe (meaning a group of them, without considering the animals individually).

Best wishes,

Jonathan

The LearnEnglish Team

Are there 'double adverbs' in English grammar ? Or Does English language have 'double adverb(s)' ?

Hello Tluangtea,

Could you please give us an example of what you're talking about?

All the best,

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team

Our grammarians often say that Mizo language* is richest in 'double adverbs'. But I think what they referred to as double adverbs are not at all double adverbs. When I consult such excellent grammar books as (1) A grammar of contemporary English by Quirk et al, (2) A comprehensive grammar of the English language by Quirk et al, (3) A practical English grammar by Thomson & Martinet, (4) Practical English Usage by M. Swan, (5) The complete Grammar by Michael Strumpf, (6) Oxford guide to English grammar by John Eastwood, (7) Cambridge grammar of English by Carter & McCarthy, etc., etc., I do not find any 'Double adverb' mentioned in these books. So my question is - Does the English language have any 'double adverb' ?

Hello Tluangtea,

I'm not sure what you mean by 'double adverbs', but if you are asking if it is possible to use two consecutive adverbs in a sentence then the answer is yes:

He is almost always late.

The boy ran extremely quickly.

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Hi Peter, Thank you very much for answering my question. I am now quite sure that what our Mizo grammarians termed as "double adverbs" are not actually "double adverbs".

*Mizo language : It is a language spoken by the Mizo's who inhabited the hilly areas in the north-eastern part of India (called Mizoram which is sandwiched between Bangladesh and Myanmar), and its adjoining areas in Bangladesh and Myanmar and whose language belongs to the Tibeto-Burman group.

Hi team, I am confused about some words in time-order signals.Do''then'',''after that'',''next'' and ''later'' means the same thing?Can we use all of them for same blank?I think we can but I am not sure.

Hello Yigido,

In some contexts -- for example, in a description of a process -- they all mean pretty much the same thing. We generally try to avoid repeating the same adverbial too much.

In general, you could use any one of them in a blank, but I can't say for sure without knowing the specific context.

All the best,

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team

Sir, A reservoir is an artificial lake where water is stored. Most reservoirs are formed by constructing dams across rivers. What does the adverb word 'across' mean in this sentence ? What's the other way to say the same thing ?

Hello SonuKumar,

'Across' here means from one side to the other. I'm not sure how else you would say it other than 'from one side to the other', but it would be strange not to use the word 'across' which is clear and succinct.

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello team Yesterday I saw this two sentence: He quickly reads a book. You can easily open this tin. Adverb comes after a verb.Are sentences true?

Hello Yigitcan,

The position of adverbs in sentences in English is quite flexible. Generally, the adverb comes before the verb rather than after. Where there is an auxiliary verb, the adverb comes before the main verb (after the auxiliary verb.

For your examples, all of these are correct options:

He quickly reads a book.

He reads a book quickly.

You can easily open this tin.

You can open this tin easily.

With other examples there may be more options. The adverb can come at the start of the sentence, for example, especially if it is an adverb of time (yesterday, earlier etc).

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Thank you teacher.

Hello! I'd like to clarify the difference between the phrases, "in school" and "at school", and when they appropriately used. Thank you very much!

Hello Timmy,

I think the main difference is that in school is more common in US English, while at school is preferred in most contexts in UK English.

In terms of meaning/use, I think in UK English in school tends to mean that a person attends school (i.e. is a pupil), while at school tends to mean that the person is physically there:

My children are still in school. [= they have not graduated yet]

My children are still at achool. [they have not come home yet]

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Thank you so much! This is really helpful!

It's really helpful.

Hello, I would like to ask the following 1.Can we use the : short of in order to say up to a point. For example Question : Did you understand what I said? Answer :Short of(up to point?, a little rtc) Thank you in advance

Hello Nagie23

Yes, though please note that it's 'sort of' (or 'kind of'), not 'short of'.

All the best

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello, Can "more than"/less than/as good as etc. be used as phrasal adverbs in example sentences :- 1. He was more than(meaning very) deserving. 2. Less than 40 People were present(less than is modifying forty) 3. It is as good as(meaning almost) lost. Best regards

Hello Bharati,

Yes, all of those sentences are fine, though very prescriptive grammarians might insist on Fewer than 40 rather than less than 40 to avoid using less with a countable noun. To be honest, though, it is very common to use less in this way, especially in modern English.

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Dear Peter, Thanks for your guidance. May i ask if phrases like "let alone/not to mention/much less/what to talk of"etc are also used as adverbials modifying the residual part of the sentence in sentence like "He was incapable of leading a bowling team, let alone/much less/what to talk of/not to mention a country" Best regards

Hello Bharati,

Phrases like these, and similar ones such as never mind and still less, are conjunctions.

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello Peter, Thanks for your reply. May i ask if the above phrases will qualify as co-ordinate conjunction though no grammar book has a mention of them as Conjunction. Best regards

Hello Bharati,

Yes, I would say so. If you look the phrases up in a good dictionary then you'll see that they are classified as conjunctions:

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/still%20less

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/never%20mind

There are so many conjunctions in English when phrases are included that it's well nigh impossible to list them all. Most grammar books for learners simplify the list of coordinating conjunctions to the most common and useful seven, using the acronym FANBOYS. There are, however, many more.

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

I have a question What does the phrase between brackets describe?Carriages used to be drawn( by horses.) * 1. used to 2. carriages 3 drawn

Hello tareq

'by horses' is the agent of the passive verb 'used to be drawn'. Another way of saying this is 'In the past, horses drew carriages.'

I'm afraid that none of three options you list explains the meaning of 'by horses'.

All the best

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello. I've got a question. Could someone tell me which sentence is better? I went to London with my parents. I went with my parents to London. Thank you very much, Kind regards, Alice Pirsoul

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 Peter, Is phrase "more than " in the following sentences used as adverb of degree. He was more than(meaning very)pleased. More than 40 people were present. I can't find any other explanation. Thanks

Could you confirm to me if the next grammar rule is true?: If the main verb has an auxiliar, the adverb goes after auxiliar and before main verb, for instance: "I have only been there once". Thanks.

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

Hi Sir, Thanks for the above details. reference to the description as you mentioned above It might say that " An Adverbial might be a preposition or verb or Noun or any pronoun?

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

Hello, Are discourse markers, sentence connectors and conjunctive adverbs the same thing called differently by grammarians. If yes, what do they modify? The complete clause following the discourse marker since conjunctive adverbs modify the entire clause to which it is attached(sentence adverbs) . Thanks

Hi Sir, I wanna know that what is the difference between ADVERBS and ADVERBIALS ?

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, Although by definition, adverb doesn't modify Pronoun,Noun Clause, prepositional phrases etc but their usage pattern in many sentences suggest that adverbs indeed modify the above. Why grammarians differ on this ? My second question is:- Are discourse markers, sentence connectors and conjunctive adverbs the same thing called differently by grammarians. If yes, what do they modify? The complete clause following the discourse marker since conjunctive adverbs modify the entire clause to which it is attached(sentence adverbs) . Thanks

Adverb phrase vs Adverbial phrase! I have studied that all ADVERB PHRASES are also know as ADVERBIAL PHRASES. Can all ADVERBIAL PHRASES also be called ADVERB PHRASES? For instance: Rick writes beautifully. (Here "carefully" can also be called an "ADVERB or ADVERBIAL.") Rick writes very beautifully. (Here "very beautifully" can also be called an "ADVERB phrase or ADVERBIAL phrase.") Rick writes in a beautiful manner. (Here "in a beautiful manner" can only be called "ADVERBIAL PHRASE".") Can "in a beautiful manner" also be called "ADVERB PHRASE"? Adverb is a single word and an adverb phrase is two or more adverbs together. However, an adverbial phrase is a more informative group of words that will contain other words apart from adverbs and may or may not actually contain an adverb. I have confusion about Adverb phrase and Adverbial phrase!

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 sir, good evening! How are you? I hope everyone's fine. I just would like to ask what is the explanation of adverbs of quantity (with count nouns : too much, fewer, more and n't enough) and what about noncount nouns: too much, less, more and isn't enough) I don't understand them how to use them. Regards! Lavern

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

I needa bit of help please?

Hello DanyalParacha

What do you need help with?

All the best

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team

An adverb is a single word that modifies a verb, adjective or another adverb: I sing badly. (Badly is an adverb that modifies the verb sing) I sing really badly. (Badly is still an adverb, but now really is as well, modifying the adverb badly) My voice is incredibly awful. (Incredibly is an adverb, modifying the adjective awful). An adverbial is when a group of words does the job of an adverb. That group of words can contain nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, prepositions, or whatever, and can be as complex as you want. Am I right?

Hello quds001

Well done, that's a great (and correct) summary!

All the best

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team

Adverbials

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