--- title: Fronted adverbials — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Fronted adverbials», a lesson of the english course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: An adverbial is a word or group of words that tells you more about the verb: when, where, how, or how often something happened. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/29-fronted-adverbials/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [English](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/) / Fronted adverbials # Fronted adverbials Lesson 29 of the english course of Mova's primary school: 20 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/english/29-fronted-adverbials/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/29-fronted-adverbials/0/) — An adverbial is a word or group of words that tells you more about the verb: when, where, how, or how often something happened. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/29-fronted-adverbials/1/) — «We went home later that day.» When you move it to the very front of the sentence, it becomes a fronted adverbial: «Later that day, we went home.» Then it is followed by a comma, like a little pause before the main news. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/29-fronted-adverbials/2/) — Fronted adverbials come in all sizes. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/29-fronted-adverbials/4/) — First, the comma: «After lunch we played» should be «After lunch, we played.» Second, the rest must still be a full sentence. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/29-fronted-adverbials/5/) — Ali writes «Carefully, carried the eggs.» Who carried them? - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/29-fronted-adverbials/6/) — The subject is missing: «Carefully, Ali carried the eggs.» Test it by covering the adverbial: what is left must make sense alone. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/29-fronted-adverbials/7/) — Use them for variety, not in every sentence. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/29-fronted-adverbials/8/) — Grace starts every sentence of her story with one, and it sounds like a robot: «Then, I woke up. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/29-fronted-adverbials/9/) — Next, I ate. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/29-fronted-adverbials/12/) — An adverbial tells you when, where, how or how often something happens. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/29-fronted-adverbials/13/) — A fronted adverbial is an adverbial moved to the start of a sentence. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/29-fronted-adverbials/14/) — A fronted adverbial is usually followed by a comma. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/29-fronted-adverbials/15/) — A fronted adverbial can be one word (Suddenly), a phrase (Under the bridge) or a clause (Because I was hungry). - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/29-fronted-adverbials/16/) — After a fronted adverbial, the rest must still be a complete sentence with its own subject and verb. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/29-fronted-adverbials/17/) — To check, cover the fronted adverbial: what is left should make sense on its own. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/29-fronted-adverbials/18/) — Fronted adverbials of time include Later that day, After lunch, At noon and Once upon a time. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/29-fronted-adverbials/19/) — Fronted adverbials of place include Under the bridge, In the garden and Far away. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/29-fronted-adverbials/21/) — Some fronted adverbials show the speaker's opinion, like Frankly, Luckily and Sadly. - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/29-fronted-adverbials/22/) — Using a fronted adverbial in every sentence makes writing sound clunky; use them for variety. - [23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/29-fronted-adverbials/23/) — Slang: «my lover» (West Country) is a friendly way to say love or mate; «lowkey» means secretly or a bit; «bussin'» means really good; «y'all» (southern US) means you all. - ← previous: [Clauses: main, subordinate and joining words](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/28-clauses-main-subordinate-and-joining-words/) - next →: [Relative clauses](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/30-relative-clauses/) - ↑ back to [English](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/)