Key points about adverbs in French
Used to describe verbs and adjectives. describe or modify A word used to describe an action or state of being. or A word which describes a noun or pronoun., giving more information about where, when or how something is done.
Add ment to the feminine form of an adjective to form an adverb in French. For example, heureuse (happy) becomes heureusement (happily).
If an adjective ends in a vowel, add ment to make an adverb, and if it ends in -ent/-ant, remove the ending and add -emment/-amment. For example, récent (recent) becomes récemment (recently).
To give more information about when or how often something happens, use an adverb of time or frequency, such as demain (tomorrow) or souvent (often).
To give more information about where something happens, use an adverb of place, such as dehors (outside).
What are adverbs in French?
An adverb describes or modifies a verb or adjective, giving information about where, when or how something is done.
Forming regular adverbs from adjectives
To make an adverb, take the feminine singular form of an adjective and add ment to it.
- Check your connection, refresh the page and try again. (feminine singular of final – final) becomes Check your connection, refresh the page and try again. (finally)
If an adjective ends in a vowel, use the masculine form and add ment:
- Check your connection, refresh the page and try again. (real) becomes Check your connection, refresh the page and try again. (really)
If an adjective ends in -ent, remove the ending and add -emment:
- Check your connection, refresh the page and try again. (recent) becomes Check your connection, refresh the page and try again. (recently)
If an adjective ends in -ant, remove the ending and add -amment:
- Check your connection, refresh the page and try again. (surprising, amazing, incredible) becomes Check your connection, refresh the page and try again. (surprisingly, amazingly, incredibly)
What are adverbs? Mini quiz
Work out the correct adverbs for the following adjectives:
facile (easy)
facilement - easily.
When an adjective ends in a vowel, add ment.
malheureux (unfortunate)
malheureusement - unfortunately.
With regular adjectives, take the feminine form (malheureuse) and add ment.
Irregular adverbs
The adjectives bon (good), mauvais (bad) and meilleur (better) are irregular when they become adverbs. Instead of adding ment, they become new words.
| Adjective | Adverb | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Check your connection, refresh the page and try again. - good | Check your connection, refresh the page and try again. - well | Il joue bien du piano. - He plays the piano well. |
| Check your connection, refresh the page and try again. - bad | Check your connection, refresh the page and try again. - badly | Hier, il a mal joué parce qu’il était malade. - Yesterday, he played badly because he was ill. |
| Check your connection, refresh the page and try again. - better | Check your connection, refresh the page and try again. - better | J’espère qu’il va mieux jouer demain. - I hope he will play better tomorrow. |
Irregular adverbs - Mini quiz
Translate these sentences into French:
They don’t play tennis very well.
Ils ne jouent pas très bien au tennis.
Bien is an adverb that means ‘well’.
I know that we can do better.
Je sais qu’on peut faire mieux.
Mieux is an adverb that means ‘better’.
Adverbs of time, frequency and place
To give more information about when or where something happened or is happening, use an adverb of time or place.
Adverbs of time and frequency
To give more information about when or how often something happened or is happening, use an adverb of time or frequency.
| French | English | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Check your connection, refresh the page and try again. | today | Aujourd’hui, c’est mon anniversaire. - Today it is my birthday. |
| Check your connection, refresh the page and try again. | soon | Ils arriveront bientôt. - They’ll arrive soon. |
| Check your connection, refresh the page and try again. | tomorrow | Nous irons au parc demain. - We’ll go to the park tomorrow. |
| Check your connection, refresh the page and try again. | at this time/at the moment | Je ne suis pas très content en ce moment. - I’m not very happy at the moment. |
| Check your connection, refresh the page and try again. | yesterday | Il a fait ses devoirs hier. - He did his homework yesterday. |
| Check your connection, refresh the page and try again. | often | Je vais souvent au centre commercial. - I often go to the shopping centre. |
| Check your connection, refresh the page and try again. | always | Elle parle toujours de foot. - She’s always talking about football. |
Adverbs of place
To add information about where something happened or is happening, add an adverb of place.
| French | English | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Check your connection, refresh the page and try again. | outside | Les enfants ne veulent pas jouer dehors parce qu’il pleut. - The children don’t want to play outside because it’s raining. |
| Check your connection, refresh the page and try again. | here | Il va venir nous voir ici. - He’ll come and see us here. |
| Check your connection, refresh the page and try again./Check your connection, refresh the page and try again. | there/over there | Tu vois l’arbre là(-bas) ? - Do you see that tree (over) there? |
Adverbs of time, frequency and place - Mini quiz
Translate these sentences into French:
It is often cold outside.
Il fait souvent froid dehors.
Dehors is an adverb of place that means 'outside'.
Today I’m in France and tomorrow I’ll be in England.
Aujourd’hui, je suis en France et demain, je serai en Angleterre.
Aujourd’hui and demain are adverbs of time that mean 'today' and 'tomorrow'.
Quiz - Adverbs in French
Practise what you've learned about adverbs in French with this quiz.
Now you’ve learned about adverbs in French, why not explore making nouns plural?
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