French Adverbs ~ Les Adverbes

An adverb, one of the eight parts of speech, is an invariable word that modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb. Adverbs provide information about the words they modify, such as when, where, how, how often, or to what degree something is done. See the list of some common French adverbs at the end of this lesson.

Word Order with Adverbs

In English, adverb placement can be arbitrary: some adverbs may be found in front of or after the verb, or even at the beginning or end of the sentence. This is not often the case in French, which has much stricter rules about placement. The following rules apply to the majority of situations, but there are exceptions. For detailed information, see my lesson on the placement of French adverbs.

1. When a French adverb modifies a verb, it is placed after the conjugated verb.

  
2. When an adverb modifies an adjective or another adverb, it is placed in front of the word it is modifying.

Common French Adverbs

Nearly every French word that ends in -ment is an adverb, and its English equivalent almost always ends in -ly: généralement - generally. For more information, please see adverbs of manner.

Here are some of the most common French adverbs: