InEnglish grammar, anadverbial (abbreviatedadv) is a word (anadverb) or a group of words (anadverbial clause oradverbial phrase) that modifies or more closely defines thesentence or theverb.[1] (The wordadverbial itself is also used as an adjective, meaning "having the same function as an adverb".) Look at the examples below:
Adverbials most commonly take the form of adverbs, adverb phrases, temporalnoun phrases orprepositional phrases. Many types of adverbials (for instance: reason and condition) are often expressed byclauses.
An adverbial is a construction which modifies or describes verbs. When an adverbial modifies a verb, it changes the meaning of that verb. This may be performed by an adverb or a word group, either considered an adverbial: for example, a prepositional phrase, a noun phrase, a finite clause or a non-finite clause.[2]
Adverbials are typically divided into four classes:
Adverbial complements (i.e. obligatory adverbial) are adverbials that render a sentence ungrammatical and meaningless if removed.
Adjuncts: These are part of the core meaning of the sentence, but if omitted still leave a meaningful sentence.
Conjuncts: These link two sentences together.
Disjuncts: These make comments on the meaning of the rest of the sentence.
All verb- or sentence-modifying adjuncts are adverbials, but some adverbials are not adjuncts.
Prepositions (in,out, etc.) may be used adverbially to indicate direction or location.
In some grammar models,negators such as "not" and "never" are considered adverbs with the function of negating adverbial clauses.[example needed]
Often ignored,expletives may take up many adverbial syntactic functions. Pragmatically and semantically, they often serve asintensifiers, boosting the content of the clause they appear in.
