What does adverbial mean?
Word: Adverbial
Part of Speech: Adjective
Meaning: Adverbial means relating to an adverb, or doing the job of an adverb by telling how, when, where or how often something happens.
How do you spell adverbial?
Syllables: ad - ver - bi - al
Tricky part: Students often skip the i before the al and write adverbal, because the ee sound in the middle is quick.
Watch out for: adverbal, adverbail, adverbeal
Memory tip: Hear the ee in ad-VERB-ee-al? That sound is the i that pupils who write adverbal leave out.
Adverbial in a sentence
Example 1: In We left after lunch, the words after lunch form an adverbial phrase.
Example 2: My sister underlined the adverbial clause in red in her notebook.
Example 3: Ms Pillai said every adverbial in the story told us when or where things happened.
Fun Fact
An adverbial does not have to be an adverb. Whole phrases can do the job: in the morning and with great care are adverbials in We packed the glasses with great care in the morning.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Cookie
Find the misspelt word in the sentence:
Our English teacher asked us to find the adverbial phrase in each sentence and underline it with a colered pencil.
a) underline
b) phrase
c) colered
d) adverbial
Show answer
c) colered. Coloured keeps the ou of colour; adverbial, phrase and underline are all spelt correctly.
Spell-o-Spell
Only one of these words is spelt correctly. Choose its meaning:
1. occassionally 2. frequantly 3. adverbial 4. immediatly
a) now and then, but not often
b) at once and without any delay
c) happening often or many times
d) working as or relating to an adverb
Show answer
d) working as or relating to an adverb. Frequently, occasionally and immediately are all misspelt here, by a vowel, an extra s and a missing e, so adverbial is the word to define.
Mingle-Mangle
Unjumble the letters in the sentence to form a meaningful word:
In She left early, the word early has an rbdlaeiva job.
a) adversarial
b) verbally
c) adverbial
d) variable
Show answer
c) adverbial. Adversarial needs an s and verbally two l's; the nine letters here spell adverbial.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Which words are adverbial in: The old bus arrived at the station?
a) old
b) the old bus
c) at the station
d) arrived
Show answer
c) at the station
2. Pick the adverbial phrase of time.
a) under the bridge
b) after the storm
c) with a smile
d) in a hurry
Show answer
b) after the storm
