Chapitre 2

Grammaire

L'adverbe

Introduction aux adverbes

An adverb modifies or gives more information about the action of the verb. It specifies how or when the action is performed. You’ve already seen and used a lot of French adverbs: bien, mal, souvent, beaucoup, trop, peu, très, d’abord (first), ensuite, après…

Forms:

Most adverbs are formed by taking the feminine form of an adjective and adding -ment.

If the masculine form of an adjective ends in a vowel, just add -ment.

If the masculine form of an adjective ends in:

-ent, add -emment
-ant, add -amment

Two exceptions:

lent => +e ⇒ lentement (slowly)
gentil => gentiment (nicely)

Irregular common adverbs:

Adverbs of time, frequence, quantity, or place:

Placement of adverbs:

Adverbs that modify adjectives or other adverbs usually come before them.

Adverbs that modify a verb usually directly follow it, in the present and imperfect tenses. If the verb is negative, the adverb is placed after the negation.

Long and common adverbs usually come at the beginning or end of a sentence: premièrement, finalement, généralement, heureusement (fortunately), malheureusement (unfortunately).

These adverbs frequently comment on the entire sentence and so may be placed at the beginning or the end of the sentence. This includes adverbs of time and place.

In the passé composé, short adverbs come before the past participle in affirmative sentences. In these sentences, the past participle = “arrivé” and “rencontré.”

Adverbs that modify a verb usually directly follow it, in the present and imperfect tenses. If the verb is negative, the adverb is placed after the negation.