What is a fronted adverbial?

Fronted adverbials are adverbs, adverbial phrases, or adverbial clauses that appear at the beginning of a sentence and describe the action that follows. For example:

  • In the morning, we’ll go to the beach.
  • Unfortunately, Sara won’t be joining us.
  • After Mario takes his test, he’ll meet us there.

Generally, fronted adverbials are followed by a comma, though short ones can stand alone (e.g., “Yesterday I went to the gym”).

A free QuillBot grammar check can help you make sure you’re using fronted adverbials correctly.