Fronted Adverbials and Commas
Use fronted adverbials to vary sentence openings and punctuate them with commas
What a learner can do afterwards
- Write a sentence beginning with a time adverbial, e.g. 'Later that day, the children ran home'
- Rewrite 'The fox crept through the garden at midnight' with the adverbial fronted and a comma placed correctly
- Identify and correct a missing comma after a fronted adverbial in 'Before breakfast she packed her bag'
The lesson
You already know phrases that tell when, where, or why something happens, like 'at midnight' or 'after lunch.' Usually these phrases sit at the end of a sentence. You can move one to the front instead. When you do, add a comma right after it, before the rest of the sentence starts.
Move 'at midnight' to the front and add a comma: 'At midnight, the fox crept along.' The comma shows where the opening phrase ends and the main sentence begins.
Look for a comma after phrases like 'later,' 'before breakfast,' or 'quietly' when they open a sentence. Without it, the reader cannot tell where the opening phrase ends.
When a time, place, or cause phrase starts a sentence, put a comma right after it.
Watch it
Where it sits
Where this leads
Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.
8 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.