Lesson 4

GLOBAL WRITERS BUREAU ENGLISH GRAMMAR & WRITING STYLE COURSE

LESSON 4

Where there are verbs, there are likely to be adverbs since the most common task of the adverbs is to modify (have an altering effect upon) the verb. The most common of these adverbs are manner, time and place.

• He walks (how?) slowly. (Manner)
• He walks (when?) early. (Time)
• He walks (where?) there. (Place)

Often a group of words – introduced by a preposition and ending with a noun or pronoun modifies a verb and therefore does the work of an adverb. Such groups of words are called adverb phrases.

• He walks (how?) in a leisurely fashion. (manner)
• He walks (when?) before dawn. (time)
• He walks (where?) to the river. (place)
• He walks (why?) because of the bus strike. (reason)
• He walks (why?) to keep fit. (purpose)
• He walks (despite what?) despite his bad foot. (concession)

When breaking a sentence down, we usually collect adverbs and adverb phrases which modify the verb and put them under the heading ‘Extension of the verb.’ So we now have four main functions of the verb.

• Pamela plays tennis badly.

Exercise 4:

In the above sentence:

1. Pamela is (A- subject) (B- object)
2. Plays is (A- verb) (B- Object)
3. Tennis is (A- object) (B- subject)
4. Badly is (A-verb) (B- ext. of verb)