Adjuncts

Definition of 'adjunct'

There is basically no agreement among modern grammarians as to the definition of an adjunct or what words in a sentence can be classified as adjunct.

English language learners do not need to worry themselves about the nature of these disagreements. It is enough to know that, primarily, adjuncts are the non-essential constituents of a sentence. In other words, the adjuncts in a sentence can be removed without making the sentence ungrammatical.

For example, in the sentence She is flying to New York tomorrow the adjuncts are to New York and tomorrow. Removing them from the sentence leaves the words She is flying, which can stand alone as a grammatical sentence.

Types of adjuncts

In the following sentences the adjuncts are shown in red. The adjuncts are categorized by type but note again that not all grammatical analyses may follow these classifications.

• He sings beautifully. (adverbial)
• The man by the school gate is my ESL teacher. (nominal)
• The gorilla is an animal of great strength. (adjectival)
• I lost my keys on the beach. (prepositional)
• We came to dance. (infinitive)
• Unfortunately, I was unable to get tickets. (sentence)

Structure of adjuncts

Adjuncts can be single words, phrases or clauses, as in the following sentences:

Single word

• I went to the park yesterday.
• They are now living in New York.
• Frankly, he is right to be angry.

Phrasal

• He answered the question without hesitation.
• She goes for a jog every other day.
• During the lesson a dog walked into the room.

Clausal

• If you need help, don't hesitate to ask.
• He went to bed early because he had a test the next day.
• My father cooked dinner while I did my homework.

Function of adjuncts

Adjuncts commonly add the following kinds of detail to the action or state in a sentence:

• Frequency: She often goes to bed after midnight.
• Place: The children played in the garden.
• Time: He went to bed after dinner.
• Degree: It is extremely hot!
• Reason: She We stayed at home as a storm was predicted.
• Manner: I finished my homework quickly.
• Condition: If you help me, I'll help you.
• Purpose: He moved house to be nearer to work.

Positioning of adjuncts

There are essentially three possible positions in the sentence that an adjunct can occupy: start, middle, end (also called initial, medial and terminal). Some adjuncts can occupy all three positions, others can occupy two positions and the rest can occupy one position only.

For example, sometimes can occupy all three positions.

• Sometimes my father talks to himself.
• My father sometimes talks to himself.
• My father talks to himself sometimes.

After lunch can occupy the initial and terminal positions:

• After lunch I have a nap.
• I after lunch have a nap. - I have after lunch a nap.
• I have a nap after lunch.

And beautifully can occupy only the terminal position.

• Beautifully he sings.
• He beautifully sings.
• He sings beautifully.

Note that no simple rules or guidelines can be derived from the above observations. There are many exceptions depending on the adjunct type and function and the construction of the rest of the sentence.

One reliable piece of advice, however, is to avoid positioning the adjunct between the verb and its object. For example, it must be He never eats meat, not *He eats never meat. (*Never he eats meat is also ungrammatical.) This is why *I have after lunch a nap is also impossible.

Fronting the adjunct

As noted above, most adjuncts can occupy the initial position. This grammatical feature is called fronting. In most cases fronting is not the most natural position for the adjunct, but placing it at the start of the sentence gives it a greater emphasis than if it comes later. Fronting the adjunct makes it the theme or topic of the sentence.

An example of fronting is All night I lay awake in bed. We can say that the topic or primary focus of the sentence is on what happened all night. You can read more about fronting on the Cambridge Dictionary site.

Positioning of multiple adjuncts

It is common for sentences to have more than one adjunct. In such cases, the adjuncts are often placed in different positions in the sentence. Here is an example:

• On Sundays I always play tennis in the park.

It is also common for adjuncts to follow each other at the end of a sentence. For example:

• She went into town - on Saturday - to visit the library.

There is a natural order for consecutive adjuncts to follow. The order for adjuncts of manner, place and time is: manner - place - time! For example:

• Her father drove carefully - in his new car - at the weekend.

Any other placement of these three adjuncts will sound unnatural to most English native speakers.

Adjunct ambiguity

Occasionally, the inclusion of a prepositional adjunct can lead to ambiguity. A famous example is the adjunct in my pyjamas in I shot an elephant in my pyjamas. So, which mammal was wearing the pyjamas? Another example is I saw a man with my telescope. Did you see a man through your telescope? Or did you see a man who had your telescope in his hand?

In both cases, a way to avoid ambiguity would be to move the adjunct to the front of the sentence.

Best adjunct position

This page has given introductory information about adjuncts: what they are and how they are used to add meaning and complexity to simple sentences. It should be clear that the biggest problem is to know where adjuncts should be placed in sentences in a way that they will sound natural to native speakers.

There are various ways to choose the most natural placement (initial, medial or terminal). Here are some of them:

• Ask a native speaker.
• Use a Google Ngram.
• Ask on the English Language Learners Q&A site.
• Send me an email via the Contact page.

More about adjuncts

Adjectives and adverbs are common kinds of adjunct. You can read more about them on the Adjectives/Adverbs page. The page has a link to a quiz on the topic.

Adjunct quiz

Test yourself on your knowledge of adjunct types and adjunct positioning by taking this quiz. Doing quizzes is a proven way to learn.