Lesson video

Hi, I'm Mr. Buckingham and I'm really pleased you've joined me today to learn about fronted adverbials.

Now, good writers use lots of different fronted adverbials in their writing to make it exciting and engaging for their reader, so I think you're going to find today's lesson really, really useful.

Let's make a start.

Today's lesson is called Fronted Adverbials: Single Words and Phrases, and it comes from our unit called Review of Determiners: Prepositions and Fronted Adverbials.

By the end of today's lesson, we'll be able to recognise and punctuate a fronted adverbial of time, place, or manner.

Now, fronted adverbials are so useful to us in our writing to add detail and interest for our reader, so I think you're going to find this really helpful.

Let's get going.

Here are keywords for today's lesson.

My turn, your turn.

Fronted adverbial, comma, phrase and manner.

Let's look at those in more detail.

A fronted adverbial is a sentence starter that is followed by a comma.

A comma is a punctuation mark that is always used after any fronted adverbial.

A phrase is a group of words with no verb, and the manner in which we do something is the way we do it.

We do it in a certain manner.

Let's look at our lesson outline for today.

We're going to start off by identifying words and phrases that are being used as fronted adverbials, and then we're going to move on to using words and phrases as fronted adverbials in our own sentences.

Let's get to work.

Now, we know that sentences can start in different ways.

I could say, "Happily she strode through the city centre." I could say, "With a smile, she strode through the city centre." Or I could say, "As she smiled, she strove through the city centre." In each of these cases, I've used a different group of words or word to start the sentence off.

In the first sentence, I just used a word, a single word, "happily." In the second I used a phrase.

That's a group of words with no verb, and the phrase was "with a smile." And in the third I used a clause, a group of words that does contain a verb.

I used "as she smiled," using the verb "smiled." All of these are interesting and different ways of starting a sentence.

But which two things tell us that "with a smile" is a phrase, not a word or a clause? Pause the video and try and decide.

Well done.

I bet you spotted that "with a smile" has more than one word and it does not contain a verb.

That's what makes it phrase.

It's not a single word and it's not a clause because a clause contains a verb.

So, fronted adverbials are words, phrases, or clauses that act as sentence starters.

So I started off with my simple sentence, "She strode through the city centre," and I added on those fronted adverbials, those sentence starters.

These are all fronted adverbials and the fronted adverbials gives us more information about the action in the the sentence that follows it.

It tells us how she strode through the city centre, or in what way she did it.

So which of these are true for fronted adverbials? They have sentence starters.

They can be words, phrases, or clauses.

They always contain a verb, and they give us more detail about the sentence that follows.

Pause the video and decide which are true for fronted adverbials.

Great effort.

So it's true, they're all sentence starters, they can be words, phrases, or clauses.

They don't all contain a verb 'cause we know that a single word might not and a phrase definitely won't, and they give us more detail about the sentence that follows them, really well done.

Now we can tell a fronted adverbial is a sentence starter because if it's removed, the sentence still makes sense.

Here's a sentence with a fronted adverbial.

"Anxiously," there's the fronted adverbial, "She tiptoed into the peculiar abandoned building." But I could remove that fronted adverbial, and the sentence still makes complete sense.

"She tiptoed into the peculiar abandoned building," is a complete, simple sentence.

Now, notice how that fronted adverbial is followed by a comma and the section after the comma, the section which isn't the fronted adverbial, is a complete sentence.

"Last Monday, I read a quarter of my new book." Well, "last Monday" is the fronted adverbial, it's followed by a comma, but the section after the comma is a complete sentence.

"I read a quarter of my new book." It makes sense on its own without the fronted adverbial.

The fronted adverbial is added at the front to give us more detail, but it's not necessary to make the sentence make sense.

So, can you identify the fronted adverbial in each of these sentences? Pause the video and have a go.

Let's take a look.

In A, it would be "yesterday," followed by that comma.

In B, it would be "in the middle of the night." Notice the comma.

And in C, it would be "in January" with a comma after it.

Each of those is a fronted adverbial followed by a comma to tell us more detail about the full sentence that followed.

Even "the doorbell rang" is a complete sentence.

"We tried to go to the beach, but it was so cold we stayed in the car," is a complete sentence.

The fronted adverbial is slotted onto the front to give us more information.

Sometimes a single word can be used as a fronted adverbial.

"Soon, you'll be good enough to appear on the stage." "Somewhere, there's a place we can be completely happy." "Gingerly, we stepped into the dark cave and shone our torches into the corners." Notice how the frontad adverbial word is always followed by that comma.

It could be removed and the sentence would still make sense.

The first one would say, "You'll be good enough to appear on the stage," and that is a complete sentence.

So, where should a comma be placed in each of these sentences to show where the fronted adverbial ends? Bear in mind, what comes after the comma must be a complete sentence on its own.

Pause the video and have a try.

Okay, let's take a look.

We need a comma after "nervously." We need a comma after "today," and we need a comma after "here" in these sentences.

And notice how it comes after the comma each time is a complete sentence.

"We held our breath as the creature approached." "You will address the whole school in assembly." Anything after the comma must make complete sense.

Really well done.

Now, at other times, instead of using a single word, we use a phrase as a fronted adverbial.

"Before too long, you'll be good enough to appear on the stage." "Out there in the big, wide world, there's a place we can be completely happy." "Full of fear, we stepped into the dark cave and we shone out torches into the corners." Notice how each of these is a group of words, not a single word.

It's still followed by a comma, and what comes after the comma still makes complete sense on its own.

And remember, this is a phrase, it does not contain a verb because it is not a clause.

So the fronted adverbial phrase, like we've just said, cannot contain a verb.

If we removed it, the sentence would still make sense.

"In the old house, the floors creak softly when no one is there." "In the old house" contains no verb and it could be removed, so that is the fronted adverbial.

The rest of the sentence does contain verbs.

It contains, for instance, "creak" and "is," and it does make sense on its own.

"The floors creak softly when no one is there." So, we can add the comma after that fronted adverbial phrase.

"In the old house, the floors creak softly when no one is there." The comma is placed after the fronted adverbial.

What comes after the comma is a complete sentence.

So, true or false? The sentence, "Just as we left, he rushed out," begins with a fronted adverbial phrase.

Pause the video and decide.

Well done.

That is false.

Now, see if you can justify why.

Is it because it contains a verb, so it's not a phrase, or is it because "if just as we left" was removed, the sentence would still make sense? Which one of those explains why it's false to say this begins with a fronted adverbial phrase.

Pause the video and have a think.

Now, this is a tricky one.

A is the best explanation here.

"Just as we left" contains no verb, so it's not a phrase.

Now, "just as we left" is a fronted adverbial, but it's not a fronted adverbial phrase.

So, B is correct.

If we remove that, the sentence would make sense.

It would say, "He rushed out," but that doesn't explain what makes it a fronted adverbial phrase, that explains what makes it a fronted adverbial.

This is a fronted adverbial clause, and we'll talk about those in a future lesson.

Really good job.

Let's try another one.

Where should a comma be placed to show the fronted adverbial phrase in each of these sentences? Remember, what comes after the comma must make complete sense on its own.

Pause the video and have a think.

Well done.

In A, we replace it after "on Wednesday." In B, after "in the distance." And in C, after "with great determination." Notice how what comes after the comma is a complete sentence.

"He picked up the sword and strode into battle." Really good job.

So, let's do our first task for this lesson.

I'm going to show you some sentences.

And for each sentence I want you to highlight the fronted adverbial.

Now, your teacher might ask you to underline it.

I want you to add a comma to show where it ends, and above it, I'd like you to write P if it's a phrase, a fronted adverbial phrase, and W if it's a word, a fronted adverbial word.

Here are your sentences.

So pause the video and see if you can do those annotations to show where those fronted adverbials are, and whether they're a phrase or a word.

Have a go.

Okay, let's take a look.

In number one, we can see "just then" is the fronted adverbial.

In number two, it's "suddenly." In number three, "to my left." In number four, "exhausted." In number five, "with great excitement." And number six, "here." Notice how I've got my comma after each of those fronted adverbials.

Now let's check if they're words or phrases.

Number one is a phrase, more than one word.

Number two is a word.

Number three, a phrase.

Number four, a word.

Number five, a phrase.

And number six, a word.

And if you look at those three phrases, notice how there are no verbs.

That is what makes them phrases.

Really, really well done.

Okay, let's move on to thinking about how we can use words and phrases as fronted adverbials in writing some sentences.

Let's go.

So, here's a simple sentence.

"We spotted an island on the horizon." We might want to know more about this sentence.

We might want to ask well, how, where and when? And fronted adverbials help us to answer those questions for our reader to give them those extra details that they are wondering as they read our writing.

Here's how we could use those fronted adverbials to answer the question.

For how, we could say, "With great difficulty, we spotted an island on the horizon." It wasn't easy to do.

For where we could say, "Across the vast ocean, we spotted an island on the horizon." And for when we could say, "Soon, we spotted an island on the horizon." So these questions, the how and the where and the when, help us to think about three different types of fronted adverbials.

We have fronted adverbials of time, like, "just then," "on Monday," "then," "soon," "after that." And these show us when something happened.

We do also have fronted adverbials of place.

"To my left," "in the distance," "on the horizon," "somewhere," "here." And these show us where something happened.

And finally, we have fronted adverbials of manner.

Now, there's a tricky word.

It's one of our keywords for this lesson.

Manner means how we do something.

We do it in a certain manner.

Maybe we are "exhausted," "full of fear," "silently," "frustrated," "angrily." These show us how something happened.

So we can see all three types here.

These are telling us how, where, and when the action after the comma might be happening.

Can you match each type of fronted adverbial to its meaning? We have fronted adverbials of manner, time and place, but what is their meaning? Pause the video and match them up.

Okay, let's share.

A fronted adverbial of manner shows us how something is happening.

A fronted adverbial of time shows us when it's happening.

And a fronted adverbial of place shows us where it's happening.

Really well done if you made those connections.

Now, we can use single words to create fronted adverbials of each type.

So, fronted adverbials of time could include single word fronted adverbials like, "Soon, it was time for us to leave." "Then, the door burst open and a terrifying man of silhouetted in the doorway." "Later, we'll explore the tunnels in more depth." We can also make single word fronted adverbials of place.

"Here, we see the remains of an ancient castle." "Everywhere, we see evidence that the temperature is rising." "There, you will find the lost city of Atlantis hidden beneath the waves." In each of these, we've used a single word fronted adverbial.

We can do the same thing for fronted adverbial of manner to show how something was done or how someone felt at the time the action after the comma took place.

And when these are made from just one word, they often start with a particular type of word, so these are really helpful for our writing.

For instance, single-word fronted adverbials of manner often start with -ed words like, "Horrified, we stumbled from the tomb." Notice how horrified is the past tense form of that verb.

"Exhausted, he trudged up the mountainside, desperate for rest." "Thrilled, I bounced down the stairs and into the sitting room." All of those words have an -ed ending.

They're a single-word fronted adverbial of manner.

We often also use -ly words like, "Cautiously, I pushed open the door and stepped into the old house." "Excitedly, we bundled out the door onto the snow-covered field." "Contentedly, Sophia pushed her bicycle through the town as she whistled." There we've got words ending in -ly, which are single-word fronted adverbial of manner.

So these -ed and -ly words are gonna be super useful for our writing.

Can you decide of each of these single-word fronted adverbials is showing time, place, or manner? Pause the video and have a think.

Well done.

Let's share.

A is definitely a time fronted adverbial.

It's telling us we're doing it now.

B is a manner.

It tells us how we are feeling as we're doing that action.

C is a place.

It's telling us where that missing treasure might be.

And D is another manner fronted adverbial.

Look, it's an -ly word this time to tell us how she felt.

Really well done if you made those links.

Now, we've talked about single-word fronted adverbials, but we know we can also use phrases to create fronted adverbials of each of these types.

For instance, fronted adverbials of time might include, "Before long, we came to a fork and we had to decide which way to go." "In the blink of an eye, the wizard was gone." "Last Tuesday at three o'clock, everything changed forever." Notice how some of those phrases are quite long.

"In the blink of an eye," but it's still a phrase because it doesn't contain a verb.

We can do the same for fronted adverbials of place.

"At the bottom of the sea, the monster lurks and waits for its prey." "Right here in this room, we will make history." "At the top of the hill, she sat down wearily to rest." And again, you can see we've used quite a few words in our fronted adverbial phrases there, so we can be really imaginative with our writing when we're using these.

Now, notice how, again, none of these contain a verb because they're fronted adverbial phrases.

Again, when we make fronted adverbials of manner, we often start them in particular ways.

Just like we did for single words, we can do the same for phrases.

We often use "full of" as a fronted adverbial of manner.

For instance, "Full of determination, she battled to the front of the race." "Full of fear, we tiptoed in." "Full of anxiety, I turned over the test paper and I began to read." And notice how all of these are feeling words and full of determination of fear or anxiety.

That's a really useful one to use in our writing.

We also often use with a something or without a something.

Let me show you.

"With a smile, Andeep tapped the ball into the net." "With a loud bang, the fireworks lit up the night sky." "Without a second thought, she jumped into the icy lake." So you've got two "with a" sentences and one "without a" in those sentences there.

So again, we've used a different type of fronted adverbial of manner to show how a person is feeling, or how something is happening.

So, we've got some lists of fronted adverbial phrases here, A, B, and C.

Can you add the correct label to each list? Is it fronted adverbials for place, for time, or for manner? Pause the video and have a quick think.

Well done.

A is showing us fronted adverbials of time.

B is showing us fronted adverbials of manner.

And C is showing us fronted adverbial of place.

Really good job.

Now, we can add a fronted adverbial of each of those types to a sentence to give more detail for our reader, because remember, our reader might be wondering those how, where, and when questions we were talking about earlier.

So, here's our simple sentence.

"We made our escape." We could add, "Cautiously, we made our escape" "Full of fear," "finally," "at that moment," "here," "in the darkness." We've used a different type of fronted adverbial each time.

There's our simple sentence.

"Cautiously" is a manner fronted adverbial, just a word.

"Full of fear" shows us manner as a phrase.

"Finally" is a time word.

"At that moment" is a time phrase.

"Here" is a place word.

"In the darkness" is a place phrase.

So we've used all our different types of fronted adverbials as single words and as phrases to add more detail about that simple sentence, to answer those questions our reader has in their head.

So, I've got a list of front adverbials on the right.

"At lunchtime," "full of fear," "at the top of the hill." Can you choose the most appropriate one from the list to begin each of our sentences? Pause the video and have a try.

Let's match these up.

I would say, "Full of fear, she stood in the rim of the volcano." We could say, "At lunchtime, Alex waited for me on the playground, but I went to play with Sam." And I could say, "At the top of the hill, we lay down to rest and took off our heavy walking boots." We can see "full of fear" is a manner fronted adverbial, a phrase.

"At lunchtime" is a time fronted adverbial.

And "at the top of the hill" is a place fronted adverbial.

Really good job.

Now, how many fronted adverbials can you think of to begin this sentence? "She tore off the wrapping paper." And I've given you lots of examples of the different types of fronted adverbials down the right hand side to help you, but these won't necessarily match with the sentence I've chosen for you, so I wonder if you can adapt them slightly to make them work at the start of this sentence.

Pause the video and see how many you can come up with.

Okay, let's take a look at some examples I've thought of.

I thought we could say, "Delighted, she tore off the wrapping paper." "Joyfully," "with a wide grin," "then," "without stopping," "full of happiness." So I've used lots of different types of fronted adverbials there to answer those questions my reader has in their head about how she might be doing this.

Really well done.

So, here's our final task for this lesson.

I've given you some sentences here, A to F.

I want you to rewrite each sentence, choosing your own fronted adverbial of the type I'm going to show you, and don't forget to add a comma after that fronted adverbial.

So for A, we're going to do manner, also for B.

C and D, we're going to use place.

And E and F, we're going to use time fronted adverbials.

Remember, you might want to do one of each as a single word, and one of each as a phrase, but it's up to you this time.

Okay, pause the video and let's add in those fronted adverbials of the type I've shown here.

Have a go.

Okay, let's take a look at some example sentences, making sure you check you've used that comma.

Here are my ideas.

Remember, yours will look different.

I've said, "Full of joy, we ran out the classroom onto the sunny field." That's showing manner as a phrase.

Then I've said, "Angrily, Jacob stomped up the stairs and he slammed his door." That's showing manner as a single word.

For C, I've said, "In the sky above me, bright stars twinkled and the moon glowed like a lantern." That's showing me place as a phrase.

In D, I've written, "Here, we will find the most wonderful creatures!" I'm showing place as a word.

In E, I've written, "Just then, I heard an owl hoot quietly as it soared away." I'm showing time as a phrase.

And finally, for F, I've done, "Now, add the cake mixture to the paper cases." And there I've shown time as a single word.

So I've tried to use the whole variety of fronted adverbials that we've learned in this lesson.

I really hope you've managed to do the same and really well done if you have.

Okay, let's summarise our learning from this lesson.

We've learned that we can use fronted adverbials to show more detail about when, where, and how the action in the sentence was done.

We've learned that a fronted adverbial can be a single word, a phrase, or a clause, and we focused in this lesson on single words and phrases.

We'll talk more about clauses next time.

We've learned that a fronted adverbial is a sentence starter that is always followed by the comma.

And we've learned that if we remove the fronted adverbial from the sentence, it would still make complete sense.

Thank you so much for joining me in this lesson, and I hope that you find these fronted adverbials useful in your writing to add variety and excitement for your reader.

I'd love to see you again next time, goodbye.