Normally at the end of the sentence
The most common position for adverbs (including adverbial phrases) is at the end of the sentence. This sentence contains two adverbial phrases:
A large number of immigrants arrived in Canada at the end of the nineteenth century.
Some adverbs can be placed at the beginning of the sentence, for emphasis:
At the end of the nineteenth century a large number of immigrants arrived in Canada.

Normally at the beginning of the sentence
A few adverbs normally go at the beginning of the sentence. Most of them add a comment, rather than being part of the main meaning of the sentence. See also Student’s Book page 95.
Perhaps I’ll go to Scotland to study.
To everyone’s surprise, the climate turned out to be very good.
Frankly, the multicultural festival was poorly organised.

Normally in the middle
Certain adverbs are placed with the verb. The most common ones include all, both, also, almost, probably, soon, no longer and adverbs of frequency like always, often, hardly ever and other words like all and both.

Their exact position depends on the verb.
- Where there is only one verb, and it is to be, the words listed above follow it - My grandparents were all immigrants from Sweden.
- Where there is only one verb, and it is not to be, the words listed above go in front of it - Immigrants generally went to places where there was plenty of work.
- Where there is at least one auxiliary or modal verb, the words listed above go after the first one - A high level of immigration would probably have been welcomed by the Canadian government at the end of the nineteenth century.


These activities practise this Grammar: