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.

Adverbs quiz

More adverbs     Parts of speech

 

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