What is an adverbial

so first of all morphologically is speaking the word adverbial is the adjective or adverb this is something that functions like an adverb but here when we say adverbial we have specific meaning in mind and that verbal in this technical sense is verb dependent that functions like an adverb semantically it can provide information about location manner time frequency etc is word or string of words that function like an adverb it can modify the verb or the sentence when say like an adverb it means sometimes morphologically it's not an adverb but in the sentences functions like an adverb like what for example if say he responded quickly of course here the word quickly is an adverb right the adverb is at varible but if say feel lot better today than did yesterday here the word lot is an adverbial modifying the adjective better hardly noticed him hardly is an adverbial phrase that consists only of an adverb but when we say didn't notice him at all so at all is like prepositional phrase but it it is an adverbial at first hardly noticed them at first is an adverbial that modifies the entire sentence but then within the sentence you have an adverb which is an adverbial phrase and it modifies the verb noticed so we have an adverbial as well as an adverb here we only have an adverbial at first didn't know structurally it is prepositional phrase but it functions like an adverb hence an adverbial as you can see an adverbial may be prepositional phrase or noun phrase it is an adverbial because it modifies verb which is what an adverb does interestingly and adverbial can also be clause for example when you say he'll be fine once get him job so this is the entire clause once get him job is an adverbial that modifies he'll be fine as sentence he alerted the police as soon as he realized what was happening the entire clause as soon as she realized what was happening the entirety of that clause it's an adverbial therefore you can actually replace it as an adverb so you can say she alerted the police quickly in the sentence left before the speech before this speech ended here again it's an adverbial clause but there's more we can have an adverbial phrase look if say left after this speech here after the speech is not an entire sentence clause it's phrase we arrived three hours late three hours late it is an adverb EUR and late is an adverb three hours modifies late how much late three hours late he helped me with my math work again how did he help you with your math work so it's prepositional phrase but it is an adverbial had late breakfast yesterday morning again yesterday morning which is noun like morning could be noun it's beautiful morning