Final answer:
To find an adverbial phrase, ask questions that probe into the specifics of the action described by the verb, such as 'where,' 'when,' 'why,' 'how,' and 'to what extent.' Adverbial phrases answer these questions and typically follow the sentence's verb. For sentences with a linking verb, ask what the subject is like or has become to find the subject complement.
Step-by-step explanation:
To find an adverbial phrase in a sentence, you can ask questions related to when, where, why, how, and to what extent about the sentence's verb. For example, if you consider the sentence 'We went to the bowling alley on Friday,' the verb is 'went.' To identify an adverbial phrase, ask 'Where did we go?' Answer: 'to the bowling alley.' Another example is 'Mr. Billingsworth laughed at the antics of the class clown,' where 'laughed' is the verb and the adverbial phrase can be found by asking 'At what did Mr. Billingsworth laugh?' Answer: 'at the antics of the class clown.'
When looking at the pattern '(subject)+(be verb)+(adverbial of time or place),' the question to ask could be 'When or where is the subject?' For instance, 'The children are in the garden' prompts the question 'Where are the children?' revealing the adverbial phrase 'in the garden.' Similarly, 'The meeting was yesterday' answers 'When was the meeting?' with the adverbial of time 'yesterday.'
Sentences can also have a subject complement after a linking verb in the form of an adjective or a noun phrase. For example, 'The taxi driver seemed like a nice man,' has the linking verb 'seemed,' and 'like a nice man' serves as the noun phrase subject complement. They are often identified by asking what the subject is like or what it has become, such as in 'It sounds like a good idea!' and 'Ms. Yeziersky became a schoolteacher.'