English·Grammar & Punctuation·procedural
Fronted Adverbials and Commas
Use fronted adverbials to vary sentence openings and punctuate them with commas
Suggested ages 8–9
Learning journey
Your child is mastering more sophisticated grammar — learning to use different verb tenses correctly, understanding how adjectives and adverbs work, and using punctuation to make their writing clearer and more varied.
Evidence of understanding
- 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'
Assessment prompt
When Fronted Adverbials and Commas writes a story or a report, do they sometimes start a sentence with a phrase like "After lunch," or "Quietly, the fox moved closer," — and put a comma after that opening phrase?
Standards alignment
No external standards are linked to this topic.