Use Fronted Adverbials to Say How Something Happens

Can you spot the adverbial in this sentence?

We planted the seeds with care.

Adverbials are words or groups of words telling us where, when, how or how often something happens.

With care is a group of words telling us how the seeds were planted.

This is an adverbial of manner as it tells us how something happened.

Fronted Adverbials

If we move the adverbial to the start of a sentence, we call it a fronted adverbial.

With care, we planted the seeds.

When we use a fronted adverbial, we must put a comma afterwards.

In this activity, we’re going to be looking at fronted adverbials of manner.

Fronted Adverbials of Manner

Fronted adverbials of manner tell us how something happens.

Here are some examples:

Happily,

As quick as a flash,

Unexpectedly,

Cautiously,

Like an athlete,

Hungrily,

Many of these fronted adverbials are one-word adverbs ending in -ly.

Can you make up any sentences using these fronted adverbials?

How about these?

Hungrily, a mysterious beast was chasing its prey.

Unexpectedly, Jaya saw a goat sitting on the roof.

As quick as a flash, the mysterious rock disappeared.

Look at the sentence below:

The boy kicked the ball.

Can you add a fronted adverbial of manner to this sentence to make it sound more exciting?

We could have:

As quick as a flash, the boy kicked the ball.

Like a professional footballer, the boy kicked the ball.

Powerfully, the boy kicked the ball.

Can you see the comma after each fronted adverbial?

In this activity, you’ll be on the hunt for fronted adverbials of manner.

Good luck.