French Adverbs

If you're trying to learn French Adverbs you will find some useful resources including a course about Adverbs of time place manner and frequency... to help you with your French grammar. Try to concentrate on the lesson and notice the pattern that occurs each time the word changes its place. Also don't forget to check the rest of our other lessons listed on Learn French. Enjoy the rest of the lesson!

French Adverbs

Learning the French Adverbs is very important because its structure is used in every day conversation. The more you master it the more you get closer to mastering the French language. But first we need to know what the role of Adverbs is in the structure of the grammar in French.

French adverbs are part of speech. Generally they're words that modify any part of language other than a noun. Adverbs can modify verbs, adjectives (including numbers), clauses, sentences and other adverbs.

Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives or other adverbs. They are invariable.

In French, they are usually formed from an adjective, by adding suffix -ment.

Examples: vrai becomes vraiment, terrible becomes terriblement.

 

If the masculine form of an adjective ends with a consonant, the adverb is formed by adding -ment to the feminine form:

Examples:

adjective	adverb
Plat (flat)	platement
Heureux (happy)	heureusement
Naturel (natural)	naturellement
Frais (fresh)	fraîchement

 

Exceptions:

gentil (nice) becomes gentiment

bref (brief) becomes brièvement

 

In some cases, the -e of the feminine form becomes an -é in the adverb.

For example:

profond (deep)becomes profondément, confus (confused) becomes confusément.

 

 

If the masculine form of an adjective ends with a vowel, the adverb is created by adding -ment to it:

examples:

adjective	adverb
Joli (pretty)	joliment
Grave (serious)	gravement
Passionné (passionate)	passionnément
Absolu (absolute)	absolument

 

Exceptions:

Beau (beautiful)	bellement
Gai (happy)	gaiement
Traître (treacherous)	traîtreusement
Impuni (unpunished)	impunément

 

In some cases, the -e of the masculine form becomes an -é in the adverb. For example, intense (intense) becomes intensément, aveugle (blind) becomes aveuglément.

 

In some adverbs formed from adjectives ending with -u, a circumflex is added. Examples: cru (raw) becomes crûment, goulu (gluttonous) becomes goulûment).

 

 

Adverbs from adjectives ending with -ant are formed dropping -ant and adding -amment.

Examples:

Galant (courteous)	galamment
Bruyant (noisy)	bruyamment

 

 

 

Adverbs from adjectives ending with -ent are formed dropping -ent and adding -emment.

Examples:

Fréquent (frequent)	Fréquemment
Évident (obvious)	évidemment

 

Exceptions:

Lent (slow)	lentement
Présent (present)	présentement

 

A lot of adverbs do not end with -ment (for example: bien (well), mieux (better), peu (little), vite (fast)).

Here are some examples:

English Adverbs	French Adverbs
adverbs	adverbes
I read a book sometimes	Je lis un livre parfois
I will never smoke	Je ne fumerai jamais
are you alone?	Êtes-vous seul?

As you can see from the example above, the structure of the Adverbs in French has a logical pattern. Locate the Adverbs above and see how it works with the rest of the sentence in French.

List of Adverbs in French

Below is a list of the Adverbs of time place manner and frequency in French placed in a table. Memorizing this table will help you add very useful and important words to your French vocabulary.

English Adverbs	French Adverbs
adverbs of time	adverbes de temps
yesterday	Hier/ La vielle
today	aujourd'hui
tomorrow	demain
now	maintenant
then	puis
later	plus tard
tonight	ce soir
right now	pour le moment/ en ce moment
last night	dernière nuit
this morning	ce matin
next week	semaine prochaine
already	déjà
recently	récemment
lately	récemment
soon	bientôt
immediately	immédiatement
still	encore
yet	encore
ago	il y a
adverbs of place	adverbes de lieu
here	ici
there	là
over there	là-bas
everywhere	partout
anywhere	n'importe où
nowhere	nulle part
home	maison
away	loin
out	dehors
adverbs of manner	adverbes de manière
very	très
quite	tout à fait/assez
pretty	joli
really	vraiment
fast	rapide
well	bien
hard	dur
quickly	rapidement
slowly	lentement
carefully	soigneusement
hardly	à peine
barely	à peine
mostly	surtout
almost	presque
absolutely	absolument
together	ensemble
alone	seul
adverbs of frequency	adverbes de fréquence
always	toujours
frequently	fréquemment
usually	habituellement
sometimes	parfois
occasionally	de temps en temps
seldom	rarement
rarely	rarement
never	jamais

Adverbs of time place manner and frequency have a very important role in French, therefore they need very special attention. Once you're done with French Adverbs, you might want to check the rest of our French lessons here: Learn French. Don't forget to bookmark this page.