Learn French Adverbs of Quantity

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Updated on February 19, 2020

French adverbs of quantity explain how many or how much.

assez (de)	quite, fairly, enough
autant (de)	as much, as many
beaucoup (de)	a lot, many
bien de*	quite a few
combien (de)	how many, much
davantage	more
encore de*	more
environ	around, approximately
la majorité de*	the majority of
la minorité de*	the minority of
moins (de)	less, fewer
un nombre de	a number of
pas mal de	quite a few
(un) peu (de)	few, little, not very
la plupart de*	most
plus (de)	more
une quantité de	a lot of
seulement	only
si	so
tant (de)	so much, so many
tellement	so
très	very
trop (de)	too much, too many
un/e verre/boîte/kilo de	a glass/can/kg/bit of

Adverbs of quantity (except très) are often followed by de + noun. When this happens, the noun usually does not have an article in front of it; i.e., de stands alone, with no definite article.*

Il y a beaucoup de problèmes - There are a lot of problems.
J'ai moins d'étudiants que Thierry - I have fewer students than Thierry.

Common French Mistake: Beaucoup des

By ThoughtCo Team

*This does not apply to the starred adverbs, which are always followed by the definite article.

Exception: When the noun after de refers to specific people or things, the definite article is used and contracts with de just as the partitive article would. Compare the following sentences to the above examples to see what I mean by specific.

Beaucoup des problèmes sont graves - A lot of the problems are serious.

- We are referring to specific problems, not problems in general.

Peu des étudiants de Thierry sont ici - Few of Thierry's students are here.

- This is a specific group of students, not students in general.

Click here to learn more about this.

Verb conjugations may be singular or plural, depending on the number of the noun that follows -learn more.

Approximate numbers (like une douzaine, une centaine) follow the same rules.

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Team, ThoughtCo. "Learn French Adverbs of Quantity." ThoughtCo, Apr. 5, 2023, thoughtco.com/learn-french-adverbs-of-quantity-4083790. Team, ThoughtCo. (2023, April 5). Learn French Adverbs of Quantity. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/learn-french-adverbs-of-quantity-4083790 Team, ThoughtCo. "Learn French Adverbs of Quantity." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/learn-french-adverbs-of-quantity-4083790 (accessed April 25, 2024).