Adverb Phrases

Adverb Phrases

An adverb phrase is a prepositional phrase that is used like a single adverb.

	The girl spoke softly. (Softly tells how she spoke.)
	The girl spoke in a whisper. (The phrase tells how she spoke.)

An adverb phrase modifies a verb most often.

An adverb phrase can also modify an adjective, or an adverb.

An adverb phrase answer the questions Where? When?How?(How long/to what degree/to what extent) and why?

	The girl spoke softly. (Softly tells how she spoke.)

	Her skirt was too long in the back. (The phrase modifies the adjective long, telling where the skirt was too long.)
	We arrived early in the morning. (The phrase modifies the adverb early, telling when we were early.)
	The snow fell like feathers. (The phrase modifies the verb fell, telling how the snow fell.)
	It has been raining for three hours. (The phase tells how long/to what degree it has been raining.)
	He wrote for more information. (The phrase tells why he wrote.)

An adverb phrase modifies the entire verb phrase.

It has been raining for three hours. (How long has it been raining?)

Two or more adverb phrases can modify the same word or verb phrase.

Tom has been standing by the front door for ten minutes. (By the front door tells where he has been standing. For ten minutes tells how long he has been standing. )

An adverb phrase's location in the sentence does not determine what they modify. An adverb phrase can be located in different places in the sentence.

For ten minutesTom has been standing by the front door . (For ten minutes modifies has been standing even though it is located at the beginning of the sentence.)

Practice identifing adverb phrases