French Adverbs ~ Les Adverbes
Introduction to French Adverbs
Lesson | Quiz
An adverb is an invariable word that modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb. Adverbs can provide additional information about time, manner, place, frequency, or quantity. They explain when, how, where, how often, or to what degree something is done.
Common French Adverbs
| FREQUENCY | MANNER | TIME | |||||
| parfois | sometimes | bien | well | aujourd'hui | today | ||
| souvent | often | mal | poorly | demain | tomorrow | ||
| toujours | always | vite | quickly | hier | yesterday | ||
| rarement | rarely | -ment* | -ly | maintenant | now | ||
| tard | late | ||||||
| tôt | early | ||||||
| PLACE | QUANTITY | déjà | already | ||||
| ici | here | assez | quite, fairly | enfin | finally | ||
| là | there | beaucoup | a lot | actuellement | currently | ||
| là-bas | over there | peu | few, little | bientôt | soon | ||
| partout | everywhere | trop | too much | ensuite | next, then | ||
| quelque part | somewhere | très | very | longtemps | for a long time | ||
*Nearly every French word that ends in -ment is an adverb, usually of manner. Its English equivalent ends in -ly: généralement = generally. For more information, please see the advanced lesson.
The placement of French adverbs can be difficult. Whereas in English their placement is sometimes arbitrary (they can be found in front of or after the verb, or even at the beginning or end of the sentence), the placement rules for French adverbs are much stricter.
1. When the adverb is modifying a verb, it is placed after the conjugated verb.
| Nous avons bien mangé. | We ate well. |
| Je regarde souvent la télé le soir. | I watch TV often in the evening. I often watch TV in the evening. Often, I watch TV in the evening. |
2. When the adverb is modifying an adjective or another adverb, it is placed in front of the word it is modifying.
| Nous avons très bien mangé. | We ate very well. |
| Je suis profondément ému. | I am deeply moved. |
There are more rules, but these two apply to the majority of situations. For detailed information, take a look at my advanced adverb lesson.
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