Adverbials are elements of clause structure whose function can be realized by various phrase and clause types:
adverbs or adverb phrases
They very often praised Tom.
noun phrases
They praised him many times.
prepositional phrases
They praised him for his generosity.
finite clauses
They praised him when they saw the report.
non-finite clauses
They praised him to win his support. (infinitive clause)
They praised him, making no attempt to hide their enthusiasm (-ing participle clause)
Embarrassed by all the attention, Tom blushed. (-ed participle clause)
verbless clauses
Grateful for his help, they praised Tom.
Errors involving various of these adverbial constructions are discussed in the following sections. Most of these involve single word adverbials, i.e. adverbs or adverb phrases, the rules governing their position in the sentence (8.5) and their formation with the suffix -ly (8.1-2). The meaning of various adverbs is discussed in 8.4 and the relation of initial adverbs to subject-verb inversion in 8.3. Non-finite adverbial clauses are dealt with in 8.6-8.