What is an adverbial, and how is it different from an adverb?

An adverb is one word, like ominously. An adverbial is a group of words doing the same job, like in the wind. Both are coloured on the board and both have their own row of buttons, so a class can see the two behaving the same way.

Where do the commas come from?

The board puts them in. The rule it follows is that anything in front of the subject is followed by a comma, so fronting the adverbial makes one appear and moving it back takes it away. That is the fronted adverbial rule, demonstrated rather than recited.

What if the class runs out of ideas?

Press Show all. The versions they found stay where they are at the top of the list and the rest fill in underneath, in the order a lesson would meet them: the plain one, the adverb moved about, the adverbial fronted, then both of them fronted. With all eight up together, asking which one they would actually write is a better question than asking for the eighth.

Why eight ways and not more?

Those are the eight these moves can make, and they are the eight that read like English. Putting the adverbial between the subject and its verb is possible on paper and is not a sentence a class should be shown, so it is not offered.

Can I use my own sentence?

Not yet. The bank has fifty, from Year 3 to Year 6, each written so that all eight versions read properly, which is most of the work. Nothing in Trove Tools needs typing, which is deliberate: a teacher at a board has a finger rather than a keyboard.

Rearrange the Sentence

English · Year 3–Year 6

Move the adverb and the adverbial, and find the eight ways to say it.

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About the rearrange

One sentence, in four parts: a noun phrase, a verb, an adverb and an adverbial. The moves are on the toolbar, so send the adverb to the front, put the adverbial at the end, and the sentence on the board is put back together with the capital letter and the commas where they belong. Every version stays in a numbered list underneath, so a class ends up with all eight side by side in the order they thought of them.

The commas are worked out rather than written in. Anything in front of the subject is followed by one, which is the whole rule about fronted adverbials, and here it happens in front of a class: move the adverbial to the front and the comma appears, move it back and it goes. Nobody has to be told to remember it.

The pattern along the top reads the grammar out as it changes: noun phrase, verb, adverb, adverbial becomes adverbial, noun phrase, verb, adverb. It is also the key to the colours, so a class can see which part moved without being told which one to look at.

There are eight arrangements, and the board says so because it works them out from the moves rather than because somebody counted them. Two of them are the poetic ones, and asking which version a class would actually write is a better question than asking them to list all eight. Show all puts the rest of them up when the ideas run out, underneath the ones the class found.

How to use it on your whiteboard

1Read the sentence on the board as it stands.
2Press Front, Before verb, After verb or End to move the adverb, and read the new version out.
3Press Front or End under Adverbial to move that instead, and watch the comma arrive.
4Keep going: every version you make is added to the numbered list underneath.
5Press Show all when the class has run out of ideas, and the rest of the eight fill in underneath the ones they found.
6Press Next for a new sentence, which starts its own list. Tap Fullscreen to fill the board.

Questions

What is an adverbial, and how is it different from an adverb?: An adverb is one word, like ominously. An adverbial is a group of words doing the same job, like in the wind. Both are coloured on the board and both have their own row of buttons, so a class can see the two behaving the same way.
Where do the commas come from?: The board puts them in. The rule it follows is that anything in front of the subject is followed by a comma, so fronting the adverbial makes one appear and moving it back takes it away. That is the fronted adverbial rule, demonstrated rather than recited.
What if the class runs out of ideas?: Press Show all. The versions they found stay where they are at the top of the list and the rest fill in underneath, in the order a lesson would meet them: the plain one, the adverb moved about, the adverbial fronted, then both of them fronted. With all eight up together, asking which one they would actually write is a better question than asking for the eighth.
Why eight ways and not more?: Those are the eight these moves can make, and they are the eight that read like English. Putting the adverbial between the subject and its verb is possible on paper and is not a sentence a class should be shown, so it is not offered.
Can I use my own sentence?: Not yet. The bank has fifty, from Year 3 to Year 6, each written so that all eight versions read properly, which is most of the work. Nothing in Trove Tools needs typing, which is deliberate: a teacher at a board has a finger rather than a keyboard.