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    French Adverbs – The Simple Guide

    Are French adverbs intimidating you? Do you need to learn French Adverbs in a simple yet effective way? Here is a guide that helps you learn French adverbs in the most efficient manner. We have curated this guide to ensure that learning French adverb is no more difficult for you and you have a smooth encounter with one of the most stylish languages of the world. 

    French Adverbs – The Simple Guide
    By Michelle A
    1 week ago

    French Grammar French Lessons

    French Adverbs – The Simple Guide

French, just like all other languages, has key components such as nouns, verbs, and adjectives. But, if you want to become fluent in French, you will need to have a better hold of the language than just the basics. This is where adverbs help you enhance your power of expression.

If you have already tried your hand in French you must know that French adverbs end with “-ment” just like English adverbs end with “-ly”, but trust us, there is a lot more about French Adverbs than this.

Read through this guide and we are sure that you will find answers to all your queries related to French adverbs, such as:

  1.         What are the key types of adverbs in French?
  2.         Can French adverb change the words? If yes, what type of?
  3.         how to use an adverb in a French sentence?

Let’s go through this guide and explore the answers to all your questions.

What can French adverbs do for you?

Just like other languages, a French adverb can change various other components of the language including a verb, an adjective or another adverb. It also helps you in relating to the complete sentence and finding out more clearly what the speaker is feeling or thinking. Simply put, French adverb can easily modify all major components of a sentence except the noun (a noun can be modified with an adjective only).

Here are some examples:

  1. An adverb modifying a verb: Je joue (verb) souvent (adv) au tennis.
  2. An adverb modifying an adjective: Je suis vraiment (adv) triste (adj).
  3. An adverb modifying another adverb: Nous sommes très (adv) souvent (adv) allés au cinéma
  4. An adverb modifying a whole sentence: Avec regret (adv), je suis en retard

Forming French adverb From an Adjective

Despite the fact that not all the French adverbs end with –ment, this ending is very imperative for you to understand and use. Here are the general rules for forming regular French adverb from an adjective:

You can make an adverb from an adjective by adding “ –ment” when the adjective ends with a vowel:

lente                ==> lentement
fraiche            ==> fraichement

The various types of French adverbs

Here are the main types of adverbs in French and some commonly used examples:

      1. Adverb of manner: It tells how something occurs.Example: mal, vite, rapidement, bien
      2. Adverb of quantity (intensity): Explain how many or how much a thing isExample: beaucoup, moins, sûrement, très, assez
      3. Adverb of time: Explain the time that something happensExample: déjà, éternellement, récemment, demain, ensuitem
      4. Adverb of place: Explain where something happen.Example: là-bas, en-dessous, extérieurement, ici
      5. Adverb of frequency: Explain how often something happensExample:  parfois , souvent, rarement, toujours
      6. Adverb of affirmation: Confirm or emphasize somethingExample: assurément, certainement, précisément
      7. Adverb of doubt: Express a doubtExample: peut-être, probablement, vraisemblablement

How to place French adverbs in a sentence?

When an adverb is used to modify the verb, it is placed after the verb in a sentence:

E.g: Il parle (verb) lentement (adv)

The rule of thumb is to change the adjective into feminine when it ends with a consonant. Add “e” at the end for the feminine form and then add -ment:

lent              ==> lente           ==> lentement
actuel          ==> actuelle     ==> actuellement

In case the adverb is used to modify an adjective or an adverb, it must be placed before the adjective or adverb.

e.g.:  ce fruit est très (adv) doux-amère (adj)/
          tu parles vraiment (adv) beaucoup (adv).

French is a lovely language but the confusion of Adverbs and adjectives can make your experience with French sour. I hope this guide helps you have a better understanding of French so that you can become fluent in French.


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