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What do you call an adverb that...? What do you call an adverb that goes at the front of a sentence to show point of view: eg Unfortunately, my car broke down. Basically, you don't have a chance... There must be a grammar term for this. |
Re: What do you call an adverb that...? A sentence adverbial - banal, but there it is. :) However, to make it a bit more complicated .... Sentence adverbials may be : Just an adverb - Frankly, he hasn't got a chance. Prepositional phrases - In all frankness, he hasn't ... etc Infinitive clauses - To put it frankly, he ..... -ing participle clauses - Frankly speaking ... Past participle clauses - Put frankly, he ....... Finite verb clauses - If I may be frank, he .... They may come in front, mid or end position. Consider also ... He hasn't, frankly, got a chance. He hasn't got a chance, quite frankly. Front is probably most usual though. A sentence adverbial differs from other adverbials in that they are often a comment on the proposition expressed - hence the commas which detach them from the rest of the sentence. Compare those above with the following, in which frankly is just an adverb of manner modifying the verb - He spoke about it very frankly. OK, OK more than you wanted to know. But I thought a one-line answer was too easy :lol: PS Examples from A Communicative Grammar of English, Leech and Svartvik (Longman) |
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