French adverbs, like their English counterparts, are used to modify adjectives, other adverbs, and verbs or clauses. They do not display any inflection; that is, their form does not change to reflect their precise role, nor any characteristics of what they modify. In French, as in English, most adverbs are derived from adjectives.
Similar to an adjective, an adverb is a descriptive word. The difference between an adjective and an adverb is that an adjective describes a noun or pronoun and an adverb describes a verb. The most common examples of adverbs in English end in the letters –ly. Take a look at these examples:
He runs quickly to catch up to his friend.
The adverb quickly modifies how the subject (He) runs (the verb).
We write carefully to avoid making mistakes.
The adverb carefully modifies how the subject (We) write (the verb).
In this module, we will focus on two common types of adverbs in French. And, most importantly, where to place them in sentences. The two types are adverbs of frequency (how often an action occurs) and adverbs of manner (how an action is carried out). View the lists below to study these two categories of adverbs.
| Adverbs of Frequency | Adverbs of Manner | |||||
| jamais | never (with ne) | bien | well | |||
| parfois | sometimes | mal | poorly | |||
| rarement | rarely | heureusement | fortunately | |||
| souvent | often | poliment | politely | |||
| toujours / quelquefois / bientôt / maintenant | always / sometimes / soon (time) / now (time) | rapidement / lentement / constamment / énormément | quickly / slowly / constantly / enormously | |||
What do you notice in the “Adverbs of Manner” list? Some of the most common French adverbs end in the ending, –ment. This would be the equivalent to the –ly in English. It’s added to the adjective.
If the adjective ends in a vowel, you can add –ment to it directly.
poli → poliment politely
Some adjectives that end in a consonant are changed to their feminine adjective forms so that a vowel will then precede the -ment ending.
heureux → heureuse → heureusement fortunately
Other adverb rules require an accent to be added to the word or a double letter (-emment or -amment if the adjective ends in -ent or -ant respectively).
énorme → énormément enormously
constant → constamment constantly
View the resources in this module for examples of additional adverbs and adverb rules.
Adverbs in a sentence:
For the two categories of adverbs that we’re talking about today, we need to talk about where they are placed in a French sentence. Often, these adverbs are placed after the verb. *And when negating a sentence, the adverb typically follows the “pas.” Review the examples below:
On mange bien ici !
We eat well here!
Nous achetons parfois des bijoux chers.
We sometimes buy expensive jewelry.
Cleo ne conduit pas lentement.
Cleo doesn’t drive slowly.
Le jeune garçon n’a pas parlé poliment au Monsieur.
The young boy didn’t speak politely to the gentleman.
You will learn additional negative adverbs soon…
Adverbs are words that describe and modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. When an adverb modifies a word, this means it changes its meaning or adds more precision/detail. Adverbs can even modify entire sentences. Adverbs tell us how, when, where, why, how often, or how much. French adverbs can modify all major components of the French language except for nouns (adjectives modify nouns).