Un 10.6

Adverbs

Generally, adverbs are used to modify or give more detail about a verb, an adjective, or a sentence. As such, adverbs can be used to add a lot of detail to any communication.

Explication

Exercices

Adverbs – Les adverbes

Adverbs often answer ‘how’ questions (e.g. how? how often? how many/much?), but can also answer questions such as ‘when’ or ‘where’.

e.g.

I was patiently waiting for you.

You often lose your keys.

Unfortunately, they weren’t ready.

It was very important.

In French, adverbs are often categorized by their function (e.g. adverbs of frequency, adverbs of place, etc.). In a sentence, French adverbs that modify the entire sentence are usually placed at the beginning or the end, whereas adverbs that modify the verb are usually placed right after the corresponding verb and adverbs that modify other adverbs or adjectives are placed before the word they modify.

e.g.

Je t’attendais patiemment.	I was patiently waiting for you.
Vous perdez souvent vos clés.	You often lose your keys.
Malheureusement, ils n’étaient pas prêts.	Unfortunately, they weren’t ready.
C’était très important.	It was very important.

In the passé composé, some adverbs are preferably placed between the auxiliary and the past participle. These adverbs are often shorter in length.

e.g.

Nous avons beaucoup vendu.	We sold a lot.
Elles n’ont pas bien joué.	They didn’t play well.

Forming Adverbs from Adjectives – Créer des adverbes à partir d’adjectifs

Many adverbs are stand-alone words, and don’t have an obvious relationship with any other words.

e.g.

J’ai déjà vu trois cerfs ce matin.	I’ve already seen three deer this morning.
Vous marchiez partout.	You were walking everywhere.
Ces petits oiseaux volent vite.	These little birds fly fast.

Many adverbs, however, are formed from their adjectival counterparts. To do so, a few patterns are used, depending on the adjective’s ending. If the masculine singular form of the adjective already ends in a vowel, the ending ‘-ment’ is added. If the masculine singular form of the adjective ends in a consonant, the ending ‘-ment’ is added to its feminine singular form.

e.g.

Le jeune roi parlait poliment et sincèrement.

The young king spoke politely and sincerely.

(poli -> poliment / sincère –> sincèrement)

Heureusement, le roi parlait lentement.

Luckily, the king spoke slowly.

(heureux -> heureuse –> heureusement / lent -> lente –> lentement)

There are a couple exceptions to the above rule to note. The two adjectives ‘gentil’ and ‘bref’ correspond to the adverbs ‘gentiment’ (even though the feminine singular form is ‘gentille’) and ‘brièvement’ (even though the feminine singular form is ‘brève’). Also, adverbs formed from adjectives that end in either ‘-ent’ or ‘-ant’ are given the slightly different adverbial endings of ‘-emment’ or ‘-amment’.

e.g.

Récemment, je veux parler couramment en français.

Recently, I’ve wanted to speak French fluently.

(récent -> récemment / courant –> couramment)

Évidemment, ils le font différemment.

Clearly, they do it differently.

(évident -> évidemment / différent –> différemment)

There are some adverbs that have a form that is irregular, when considering their corresponding adjective.

e.g.

Tu as bien répondu à la question.

You answered the question well.

(bon -> bien)

Nous chantons mal, mais nous nous amusons.

We sing badly, but we have fun.

(mauvais -> mal)

Ils ne l’aiment pas ? Ils mangent peu.

They don’t like it? They’re not eating much.

(petit -> peu)

Adverbs based on numbers use the ordinal form as their starting point. Quite often, these adverbs are used to organize a list of ideas or events.

e.g.

Premièrement, il fait beau aujourd’hui. Deuxièmement, nous n’avons pas encore fait d’exercice. Dernièrement, je veux sortir.

Firstly, the weather’s beautiful today. Secondly, we haven’t exercised yet. Lastly, I want to go out.

(premier -> première -> premièrement / deuxième -> deuxièmement)

Exercices