Mettez les adverbes à la bonne place

FRENCH ADVERBS

Les adverbes

When learning French, you will come across adverbs sooner or later. This is a filler category of French grammar that is combined with vocabulary as well as grammar.

What are french adverbs?

Que sont les adverbes ?

Adverbs (les adverbes) change the meaning of other words : verbs, nouns, adjectives, or even other adverbs… It’s a category of words that is very different and connects the French language.

Another thing is that all adverbs are invariable in gender and in plurality.

Adverbs are generally classified according to their meaning : adverbs of cunjunctionquantityplacetimeaffirmationnegationinterrogationlogical relationshipmood.

Also, we can produce adverbs from adjectives, called derivation.

French adverbs of quantity

Les adverbes de quantité

French adverbsTranslation
Assezenough
Aussitoo, as well
Autantas much
Beaucoupa lot
Davantagemore
Encoreagain
Environabout
Moinsless
Peua little, a bit
Plusmore
Presquealmost
Seulementonly
Tant, Tellementso much, so many
ToutEverything, all
Trèsvery
Troptoo much, too many

French adverbs of place

Les adverbes de lieu

Adverbs of place, obviously, give geographical indications and answer the question « where ? »

French adverbsTranslation
à côté (de)next (to)
à droite (de)at the right (of)
à gauche (de)at the left (of)
ailleurs (que)elsewhere, somewhere else (from)
à l’intérieur (de)inside (of)
dedansinside
dehorsoutside
derrièrebehind
devantin front of
dessousunderneath
dessusabove
suron
sousunder
en bas (de)down
en face (de)opposite
en haut (de)up
Icihere
there
là-basover-there
loin (de)far
nulle partnowhere
partouteverywhere
près (de)close to
quelque partsomewhere
tout droitstraight

French adverbs of time

Les adverbes de temps

The adverbs of  basically answer the question « when ? » and give an indication of the position in time, or of chronology.

French adverbsTranslation
aujourd’huitoday
aprèsafter
aussitôtas soon as, immediately
autrefois, jadisin the past
avantbefore
bientôtsoon
d’abordfirst
déjàalready
demaintomorrow
encoreagain
enfinat last
en même tempsat the same time
ensuite, puisthen
hieryesterday
jamaisnever
maintenantnow
quelquefois, parfoissometimes
rarementrarely
soudainswift, suddenly
souventoften
tardlate
toujoursalways
tôtearly
tout de suiteright now
tout à coupsuddenly
depuis since
jusqu’à until

French adverbs of logical relationship

Les adverbes de relation logique

The adverbs of logical relationship have the role of expressing any idea of causeconsequenceopposition… They don’t answer to a question in particular, or maybe « why ? » or « how ? »

French adverbsTranslation
aussialso
cependanthowever
doncSo
en revanchenevertheless, yet
encoreagain
mêmesame
par ailleursin addition
par conséquentconsequently
pourtantyet, however
quand mêmeanyway
seulementexcept that
tout de mêmeAll the same
toutefoisnevertheless

French adverbs of cunjunction

Les adverbes de liaison

The adverbs of conjunction play the role of linking sentences together, and as such, they can modify the meaning of a whole sentence.

French adverbsTranslation
siif
alorsthen
certesadmittedly, of course
doncso
en effetbecause, actually
ensuite, puisthen
enfinlastly
néanmoinsnonetheless
par contreon the other hand
pourtantyet, however

French adverbs of affirmation

Les adverbes d’affirmation

Adverbs of affirmation are used to affirm something or to back it up. They also can serve to minimize a statement, or express a doubt about its truth or realization.  As such, they would answer the question « really ? »

French adverbTranslation
assurémentdoubtlessly
certainementcertainly
certesof course
ouiyes
précisémentprecisely
volontierswith pleasure
vraimentreally
peut-êtremaybe
probablementprobably
sans doutemost likely
apparemmentapparently
vraisemblablementin all likelihood
TellementSo much
Tout, trèsVery
Troptoo much
Un peua little

French adverbs of negation

Les adverbes de négation

As it should be, adverbs of negation are used to make negative sentences. In this sense, they are almost always part of an adverbial locution.

French adverbTranslation
ne … pasnot
ne … plusnot … anymore
ne … riennot … anything
nonno
pas du toutnot at all

French adverbs of interrogation

Les adverbes d’interrogation

Quite simply, the adverbs of interrogation are used to ask question.

French adverbsTranslation
combienhow much, how many
commenthow
pourquoiwhy
quandwhen
where

French adverbs of modality

Les adverbes de modalité

The adverbs of modality carry a sense of subjectivity, and as such they inform about the mood or attitude of the person who is speaking about what he is saying without stating any actual fact.

French adverbsTranslation
hélasAlas
heureusementFortunately
malheureusementunfortunately
par bonheurhappily
certainementprobably
par manque de chanceby lack of luck

Adverbs derived from adjectives

Les adverbes dérivés des adjectifs

Most adjectives can be transformed into adverbs, with the intention to modify the meaning of another word. To do so, we add the suffix –ment to the end of the feminine form of the adjective.

Indeed, an example will be very helpful here :

  • long(long, adjective, m.)
    → longue (long, adjective, f.)
    → longuement (at length, adverb)
  • Il m’a parlé longuementde sa jeunesse.
    = He told me of his childhood at length.

Sometimes, a little modification is necessary. Firstly, and to the exception of lent (slow) and présent (present), the adjective already ending in -ent or -ant have their adverbial form in –emment or –amment (and in both cases it is pronounced the same, e.g. –amment) :

  • méchant(mean) → méchamment (meanly)
  • récent(recent)→ récemment (recently)
  • but : présentement, lentement

Also, some adjectives that already end in -e at the masculine form take an accent when derived :

  • intense(intense) → intensément (intensely)

Finally, a few adjectives derive into an exceptionally formed adverb.

  • bon(good) → bien (good)
  • fou(crazy) → follement (crazily)
  • mou(soft) → mollement (softly)
  • bref(brief) → brièvement (briefly)
  • mauvais(bad) → mal (badly)
  • impuni(unpunished) → impunément (with impunity)

Adverbes - adverbs - Adjectifs - french grammar

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