Frenchvita

The World of Adverbs and Little Words

Formation

Most adverbs can be formed by adding the –ment ending to the basic feminine adjectival forms.

• Grande - grandement – Grand – grandly
• Rapide – rapidement – swift – swiftly

  Note that some adverbs are irregular:

• Many adjectives ending in -ant or -ent take the adverb ending -amment or emment:
  • Courant – couramment – Current - currently
  • Brillant – brillamment - brilliant - brilliantly
• Other irregular forms are:
  • précis – précisément – (precise – precisely)
  • bon – bien – (good – well)
  • mauvais – mal – (bad – badly)
  • meilleur – mieux – (better – better)
  • Il est le meilleur (he is the best)
  • Il se sent mieux (He feels better)
  • bref – brièvement – brief - briefly
  • gentil – gentiment – gentle/nice – gently/nicely

  Adverbs of time, place and quality are not related to adjectival forms:

  • hier (yesterday)
  • aujourd'hui (today)
  • tôt (soon)
  • tard (late)
  • ici (here)
  • là-bas (there)
  • moins (less)
  • plus (more)
  • aussi (as)
  • très (very)

Position

Adverbs generally follow the verb they modify. In compound tenses long adverbs often follow the past participle. Short adverbs and certain very common adverbs (probablement, peut-être, etc.) generally go between the auxiliary and the participle:

• Il parle vite. (He speaks fast).
• Be aware that fast as an adjective is 'rapide' and as an adverb is 'vite'. (C’est un homme rapide, il court vite).
• Elle a bien parlé. (She spoke well).
• Nous allons probablement finir par aller au cinéma. (We are probably going to end up going to the movies).

Adverbs of time or place generally go after the verb. They also appear at the beginning or end of sentences:

• Je lui ai parlé hier. (I spoke to him yesterday)
• Aujourd'hui nous allons au cinéma. (Today we are going to the movies).
• Nous sommes parties très tôt. (We left very early)

Interrogative adverbs

These adverbs are used in question forms

• Comment – How
• Pourquoi – Why
• Quand – When
• Combien – How many/much
• Où – Where

They can be used with “est-ce que” or with the inversion:

• Comment t'appelles-tu? (What's your name?)
• Où est-ce que vous habitez?(Where do you live ?)
• Pourquoi est-il revenu? (Why did he come back ?)
• Combien est-ce que tu gagnes par mois? (How much do you earn a month?)

The next section on 'little words' covers Prepositions