Many American western movies use a common plot element:

A mysterious man appears in a small, dusty town. He speaks to people in a short, purposeful way. He shows confidence and strength.

Often, he is looking for revenge.

In a recent Everyday Grammar program, we explored one common adverbial, or verb modifying, structure: the prepositional phrase.

In today's report, we will discover two other common adverbials: the noun phrase and the verb phrase.

Specifically, we will explore how adverbial noun and verb phrases can help provide information about the mysterious man. This idea might sound complicated, but we promise: unlike the bad guys in a western, you will survive this lesson!

What is a noun phrase?

A noun phrase is a group of words that acts like a noun in a sentence.

Think back to the second sentence of this story, "A mysterious man appears in a small, dusty town." The phrase "A mysterious man" is an example of a noun phrase.

Noun phrases can take several shapes, but in general, you can recognize them by looking for common words such as demonstrative pronouns or articles, among others. For example, the noun phrase "A mysterious man" begins with the article, a.

Nouns and noun phrases can act as adverbials – that is, they can modify or add information to a verb. When noun phrases act in such a role, they describe time, place, quantity, or manner.

So, what do adverbial noun phrases look like?

A couple of examples that describe our western film can help you see that adverbial noun phrases are not as complex as you might think:

He arrived this morning.

He is riding home.

He travels a great deal.

Tip #1 Ask questions to recognize adverbial noun phrases

Ask yourself what information these noun phrases provide. That can help you see that these noun phrases are giving adverbial information.

Adverbial noun phrases might look like direct objects at first, but if you remember the kind of information that adverbials give, you will not have any trouble.

Consider our examples:

He arrived (when?) this morning.

He is riding (where?) home.

He travels (how much?) a great deal.

Infinitives are the most common verb form to play an adverbial role. They consist of the base form of the verb plus to, which gives a signal that the verb is infinitive. But remember, infinitive verb phrases are not just verbs with to; they also have complements and modifiers.

Consider this example:

He went home early to rest before the gunfight.

The infinitive verb phrase to rest before the gunfight is telling why the man went home early.

There is, however, one important difference. In prepositional phrases, to is followed by a noun or noun phrase. In infinitive verb phrases, to is followed by a verb or verb phrase.

Infinitive verb phrases often answer a why question. Martha Kolln and Robert Funk, two English grammar experts, say an easy way to recognize adverbial infinitive verb phrases is to add the phrase in order to to the sentence.

This action will show you that the verb phrase is answering a why question.

Consider our example:

He went home early to rest before the gunfight.

You could add the phrase 'in order to' to make this relationship clear:

He went home early in order to rest before the gunfight.

Occasionally, an infinitive operates adverbially without the meaning of 'in order to.' However, these exceptions are not common in speech.

How can adverbial structures help you?

Remember the mysterious stranger? Here is one way to summarize a typical beginning of American western movies:

A stranger arrived this morning. He came to get revenge.

Once you understand this idea, you can have fun with adverbials. You can combine these sentences to create a new sentence.

Here is an example:

This morning, a stranger came to get revenge.

The placement of adverbial information has changed, but it contains almost all of the same information as the first two examples.

These examples show you that the adverbial structures often come at the beginning and end of a sentence. Understanding this idea will help you use longer, more complex sentences with multiple adverbial structures.

Like other adverbials, you can sometimes change the order of adverbials in the sentence. See our previous Everyday Grammar story to read more about this idea.

Remember: adverbial structures are one of the reasons that sentences in English are longer than the basic sentence patterns we discussed in previous stories.

Now that you have learned about adverbials, try looking for them when you are reading or listening to something in English.

For example, try to find the adverbials in this short piece from Edgar Allen Poe's "The Purloined Letter:"

"The next morning, I stopped at his apartment to look for my glove. While we were talking, we heard people shouting in the street. D'Arcy went to the window and looked out. Quickly, I stepped to the shelf and put the letter in my pocket. Then I replaced it with a letter that looked exactly like it, which I had taken with me. I had made it the night before."

With time, you will master adverbials. Like a hero in a western movie who coolly confronts his enemies, you, too, can meet adverbials without fear.

I'm Jill Robbins.

I'm Alice Bryant.

And I'm John Russell.

John Russell wrote this story for Learning English. Catherine Weaver was the editor. Shep O'Neal read from Edgar Allen Poe's Story, "The Purloined Letter."

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section.

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plot – n. a series of events that form the story in a novel, movie, etc.

confidence – n. a feeling or belief that you can do something well or succeed at something

revenge – n. the act of doing something to hurt someone because that person did something that hurt you

adverbial – adj. a word that describes a verb, an adjective, another adverb, or a sentence and that is often used to show time, manner, place, or degree

prepositional phrase – n. a phrase that begins with a preposition and ends in a noun, pronoun, or noun phrase

phrase – n. a group of two or more words that express a single idea but do not usually form a complete sentence

demonstrative pronoun – n. a word (such as "this," "that," "these," or "those") that tells who or what is being referred to

article – n. a word (such as a, an, or the) that is used with a noun to show whether or not the noun refers to a specific person or thing

infinitive – n. the basic form of a verb

confront – v. to oppose or challenge (someone) especially in a direct and forceful way