Adverbials
Adverbials modify or tell us something about the sentence or the verb. It may be a single adverb, a phrase, or a prepositional phrase, or clause element. When an adverbial modifies a verb, it changes the meaning of that verb. For example:- The students looked at me. The students looked at me anxiously . (The verb looked suddenly has a very different meaning). When an adverbial modifies a sentence, the meaning of the sentence changes. For example:- I passed all of my exams . Surprisingly , I passed all of my exams . Word groups that are also considered to be adverbials can also modify verbs: a prepositional phrase, a noun phrase, a finite clause or a non-finite clause. Multi-word adverbials are sometimes called adverbial phrases. For example:- I ran as quickly as I could , but I missed the bus. If a whole clause acts as an adverbial, it's called an adverbial clause. For example:- I'll go to bed when the film ends.