Grammar: Adverbs - Common Adverbial Phrases
Grammar: Adverbs - Common Adverbial Phrases
Section: Formation of Adverbs
- In French, many adverbs can be formed by adding -ment to the feminine form of an adjective. For example, tranquillement (quietly) from tranquille (quiet).
- If the adjective ends in -ant or -ent, replace the ending with -amment or -emment respectively. For example, constamment (constantly) from constant (constant).
- Not all adverbs end with -ment. For instance, bien (well), mal (badly), tôt (early), tard (late).
Section: Placement of Adverbs
- Most adverbs come after the verb they modify. For example, “Il mange rapidement” (He eats quickly).
- Some adverbs of time, frequency, or quantity can come at the beginning of the sentence. For example, “Parfois, je vais à la bibliothèque” (Sometimes, I go to the library).
- When used in passé composé, the adverb comes after the auxiliary verb but before the past participle. For instance, “Elle a jamais vu ça” (She has never seen that).
Section: Common Adverbial Phrases
- À peine - barely/hardly
- À la fois - at the same time
- De temps en temps - from time to time
- Tout de suite - right away
- De plus en plus - more and more
- De moins en moins - less and less
- En général - in general
- Au moins - at least
- Bientôt - soon
- Déjà - already
- Enfin - finally
- Toujours - always
- Souvent - often
- Jamais - never
- Peut-être - maybe
- Ainsi - thus/therefore
Remember to practice using these common adverbial phrases in a variety of sentence structures to improve fluency.