What is a fronted adverbial?
Apparently this is something that kids are learning at schools these days as discovered by parents who are having to homeschool in lockdown. I confess that I’d never heard of the term until I read an article in today’s “Guardian” newspaper.
Even then, I had no idea what it was and I’m a reasonably well-educated and well-read senior citizen. But I’ve now looked it up.
Adverbials are words or phrases that give more information to the sentence.
“I discovered fronted adverbials, earlier today.”
‘Earlier today’ is the adverbial.
“Earlier today, I discovered fronted adverbials.”
A fronted adverbial is when the adverbial word or phrase is moved to the front of the sentence, before the verb. So here, ‘earlier today’ is a fronted adverbial.
Now you know. Admit it: you’re feeling better.