How to use adverbs in French?

French adverbs are used to modify and add information to:

• a verbNo definition set for verbLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.:

  verbadverb

  Je travaille tard.

  I work late.

• an adjectiveNo definition set for adjectiveLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.:

  adverbadjective

  Il est très grand.

  He is very tall.

• or another adverb:

  adverbadverb

  Cette appli fonctionne super bien !

  This app works really well.

Do you get confused about the position of adverbs in the sentence? In this post, we’ll review how and why to use French adverbs, how to form them, the different types of adverbs, their position, and irregular adverbs. Let’s get started!

Adverbs in French are used to modify three types of words: verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. Just like in English, using adverbs in French will make your sentences richer and more interesting and help to convey your ideas better, especially in arguments! If you are stuck for ideas, you can ask yourself the following questions: where, when, how, how long, or how often?

For example, I could just say, Emilie est rentrée(Emily came back). But I can also ask when: Emilie est rentrée hier(Emily came back yesterday), or how: Elle est rentrée silencieusement(She came back silently).

We use adverbs to:

• modify a verb

  verbadverb

  Samira mange souvent des plats à emporter.

  Samira often eats takeaway food.

• modify an adjective

  adverbadjective

  Ma tante est très gentille.

  My aunt is very nice.

• modify another adverb

  adverbadverb

  Le joueur a traversé le terrain si rapidement ! 🏈

  The player went across the field so quickly.

All adverbs are invariable. However, there are a handful of adjectives that can be used as adverbs and these adjectives must still agreeNo definition set for agreeLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. in certain circumstances.

A large number of French adverbs are formed by taking an adjective and adding the ending -ment, which is the equivalent of the ending “-ly” in English. There are a few rules for forming these kinds of adverbs:

• If the adjective ends with a vowelNo definition set for vowelLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum., we add -ment.

  rapide → rapidement

  quick → quickly

  absolu → absolument

  absolute → absolutely

  Exception!

  Some adjectives that end in vowels have different masculine and feminine forms. These adjectives must be made feminine before adding -ment. For example, this is the case for:

  gai → gaie → gaiement

  cheerful (m.) → cheerful (f.) → cheerfully

  fou → folle → follement

  mad (m.) → mad (f.) → madly

  mou→ molle → mollement

  weak (m.) → weak (f.) → weakly

  sûr → sûre → sûrement

  sure (m.) → sure (f.) → surely

• If the adjective ends with a consonant (that is not the cluster -ent or -ant), use its feminine form, and add -ment to that.

  lent → lente → lentement

  slow (m.) → slow (f.) → slowly

  joyeux → joyeuse → joyeusement

  happy (m.) → happy (f.) → happily

  Exception!

  The feminine adjective gentille(kind) turns into the adverb gentiment(kindly).

  Important

  In a small number of cases, the silent -e at the end of the feminine adjective will turn into -é.

  précise → précisément

  precise (f.) → precisely

  👉Check our list of French adverbs ending in -ément .

• If the adjective ends in -ent or -ant, remove -ent or -ant and add the endings -emment or -amment, respectively. Note that -emment and -ammant are both pronounced [ama(n)].

  prudent → prudemment

  careful → carefully

  courant → couramment

  common → commonly

But remember, not all French adverbs are based on an adjective and not all end in -ment! Let’s now take a look at the different types of adverbs.

The most common types of adverbs you’ll encounter in French are adverbs of mannerNo definition set for adverbs of mannerLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum., of time and frequency, of place, of quantity and degree, of sequence, and of affirmation, and you will also encounter causal, modal, and interrogative adverbs. The table below shows examples of each of the main categories of adverbs. Please look at the list of the most common French adverbs to see more.

The next section is very important — we are going to look at the position of adverbs in the sentence.

Where you put an adverb in a French sentence will depend on its length, on the type of adverb, and on the tense of the sentence. I’m presenting the main points here to help you use adverbs accurately.

• In a simple tense, the adverb goes after the conjugated verbNo definition set for conjugated verbLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.. If you need to remember one thing from this article, I would suggest that it is this. Because it is an error I hear so often from my students (especially with adverbs of frequency such as souvent(often) or toujours(always)).

  conjugated verbadverb

  On regarde souvent les matchs de rugby en famille.

  We often go to see rugby games as a family.

  If the sentence is negative, the adverb is found after the negation pas(not).

  negation - pasadverb

  Il ne progresse pas vite !

  He’s not progressing quickly.

  ⤷ Remember, ❌ vitement does not exist! It’s a common mistake, so make sure you use ✅ vite.

• In sentences that use compound tenses such as le passé composé, there are several possibilities and no strict rules.

  • Longer adverbs of manner tend to be placed after the past participleNo definition set for past participleLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.:

    past participleadverb

    Elle est partie précipitamment.

    She left hastily.

  • Adverbs of quantity and degree (beaucoup, assez), certain adverbs of time (souvent, toujours), adverbs of certainty (certainement), and adverbs of doubt (peut-être) are usually found before the past participle:

    adverbpast participle

    Tu as vraiment habité au Japon pendant trois ans ?

    Did you really live in Japan for three years?

  Tip

  Listening and reading to a lot of French will help you to know instinctively where to place different adverbs.

• Adverbs of time, especially those referring to specific days like hier(yesterday), aujourd’hui(today), or demain(tomorrow) are placed at the very beginning of the sentence or right at the end of the sentence.

  Demain, il va neiger.

  It is going to snow tomorrow.

  Il a plu hier.

  It rained yesterday.

• Long adverbs also tend to go either at the beginning or at the end of the sentence.

  Elle a monté les marches lentement.

  She walked up the stairs slowly.

  Exception!

  The adverbs sûrement(surely) and certainement (certainly) always go after the conjugated verb.

• You will find adverbs of place after the direct objectNo definition set for direct objectLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum..

  direct objectadverb of place

  Il a garé sa voiture à gauche.

  He parked his car on the left.

• Adverbs that modify an adjective are found just before the adjective. These will usually be adverbs of quantity and degree such as un peu(a little).

  adverbadjective

  Ses parents sont très fiers de lui.

  His parents are very proud of him.

• And in the same way, adverbs that modify another adverb are situated before the adverb they modify

  modifying adverbmodified adverb

  Elle ne parle pas assez fort.

  She doesn’t speak loud enough.

• The adverb ensemble(together) always goes after the verb.

  verbadverb

  Pourquoi ne sont-elles pas venues ensemble ?

  Why didn’t they come together?

Before we finish, I want to clarify a few adverbs that usually cause confusion. ☹

My students often confuse the adverbs and adjectives bienand bon, mal and mauvais, and vite and rapide. And it’s understandable; “fast” in English, for instance, can be either an adverb or an adjective.

So which one is the adverb, and which one is the adjective?

We also go into more detail about the differences between bien and bon(ne) in French in our post on confusing words!

When using adverbs in French, keep the following points in mind:

• they modify a verb, an adjective, or another adverb

• they are invariable

• they are often based on the feminine form of an adjective, to which we add the ending -ment

• in simple tenses, they are placed before the conjugated verbs

• in compound tenses, longer adverbs of manner are usually after the past participle, whereas all other adverbs are found before the past participle

• bien, mal, and vite are adverbs

You are now ready to use indefinite adjectives and adverbs! Don’t forget to read the recap before you start the French adverb activities!