Adjectival and adverbial phrase: differences

The adjectival phrase and adverbial phrase they are related to each other in many different ways; for example, adverbs ending in -mind are created from an adjective that works as a base (slow - slowly). On the other hand, adjectives describe and provide information about the noun they accompany, while adverbs can modify or complement the action stated by the verb, an adjective or another adverb.

In this lesson from a TEACHER we are going to review the concepts of adjectival phrase (S Adj) and phrase adverbial (S Adv), paying special attention to what are the differences between both types of phrases. Keep reading and you will discover the differences between adjectival and adverbial phrase.

The adjectival phrase (S Adj) is all that phrase whose nucleus is formed by an adjective. This adjective, which functions as a syntactic nucleus and determines the typology of the phrase, can be modified by a quantifier, element that precedes the adjective or by an adjectival complement, which is placed after the adjective.

Let's see it through a example:

• I'm sick of you

The adjective fed up forms an adjectival phrase by itself, since the nucleus is the only essential element for a phrase to exist. Now, to the adjective fed up quantifiers such as very fed up or adjectival complements, Sick of you.

It is important to note that these adjective complements are prepositional complements. However, when these complements are governed by a preposition required by the verb, they are called regime complements, as in the case of the adjective fed up (of).

In this other lesson from a TEACHER we will discover some examples of adjectival phraseso you better understand how it works.

The adverb is a class of invariable words that is characterized because it can modify both a verb (cook quietly), as to an adjective (Felizmente married) as to a different adverb (very late) or even to a noun (little cold) or to a complete sentence (Surely they won't come to dinner with us). When the adverb is accompanied by modifiers and adverbial complements forms the adverbial phrase (S Adv).

A example of adverbial phrase is the following:

• Very close to your town

In this example, the adverb close it works as a syntactic core. This syntactic kernel in turn is modified by the quantifier very and is also accompanied by an adverbial complement, which is from his town.

Once the concepts have been reviewed, we are going to summarize in a simple way what are the differences between adjectival and adverbial phrase:

• First, the adjectival phrase modifies, as a rule, to nouns, while the adverbial phrase can complement to different classes of words, among which are verbs, adjectives or other adverbs.
• In second place, the nucleus of an adjectival phrase is an adjective and as such, it agrees in gender and number with the noun it modifies. However, the syntactic core of the adverbial phrase is formed by an adverb, a kind of word that is characterized by the absence of inflection, since it is an invariable word in terms of its structure.
• By last, the functions it performs more frequently the adjectival phrase are those of attribute (The bus is too small), predicative complement (Children play happily) or adjacent to the syntactic core of a noun phrase, while the adverbial phrase the main function it fulfills is that of a circumstantial complement (We ate near the office).