Adverbs in French

   

 Types of adverb, and their usage

Subject index:

Functions and use of adverbs

Formation of adverbs

Sentence adverbs

1.0. Use and function of adverbs:

Adverbs are....
Adverbs and adverb phrases are the parts of a sentence that add circumstantial information to qualify  a verb, an adjective, or another adverb.  Some adverbs - called "sentence adverbs" - can also qualify a whole sentence or clause (see below).
Adverbs are invariable, in other words they only have one single form.

1.1. Types of adverb:

The term "adverb" covers quite a large spectrum of words. Demain is an adverb, but so are  probablement, bien, malheureusement or déjà.
   One common way of classifying adverbs is to divide them into four main types: adverbs of time, adverbs of place, adverbs of manner,  adverbs of degree (including degrees of certainty) .
   Examples
Most simple adverbs can be re-expressed as longer "adverb phrases", of which the number is infinite. The exact adverb phrase equivalent will depend on the context. Adverb phrases are frequently made up of a preposition and a noun and maybe more.
   Examples

1.2. Position of adverbs:

   With the exception of sentence adverbs, adverbs stand next to the element they qualify – usually after a verb, but before an adjective or adverb.
   
   With compound verb-forms, such as auxiliary + verb, as in  j'ai mangé or je vais manger, some common adverbs, notably adverbs of frequency or of manner, are most often placed in the middle of the verb group, for example
   Some adverbs, without being sentence adverbs, can also be seen to qualify a whole sentence or clause. Their position is flexible, and may depend on the user's preference, or the logic of the sentence.
  Take the word hier (yesterday) in this sentence.
While hier qualifies the whole sentence, we could also say that is qualifies the verb, so hier can stand after the verb .
Since it qualifies the whole  sentence, hier can also stand next to it at the end, rather than the beginning.
So in this case, there are three positions possible for the adverb.

2. Categories and formation of adverbs:

Adverbs can be divided into two categories :

1.    Those that are related to adjectives or prepositions, and are single words
2.    Those that exist independently, and are not derived from adjectives or prepositions, and may be made up of two or even three words

Adverbs from either category play the same role in a sentence.

French has many adverbs derived from adjectives, though not as many as English. Some of these can qualify verbs or adjectives or other adverbs, others are less flexible. It depends on their meaning.

2.1. Adverbs derived from adjectives

In virtually all cases (except for moins (adv.) from moindre (adj) ), adverbs are formed by adding the ending -ment to the feminine form of the adjective.   However

• adjectives ending in -ent form adverbs in -emment ,
• adjectives ending in -ant form adverbs in -amment
• and adjectives ending in -i  or -u  form adverbs from their masculine form

Examples in context

Adjectives	Adverbs
qualifying a noun	qualifying a verb	qualifying an adjective (or an adverb)
Une haute montagne	Je pense très hautement de lui	Cela est hautement improbable
Une vraie surprise	je l'aime vraiment	Vous êtes vraiment gentil !
Un train rapide	Il va très rapidement	Il était rapidement épuisé.
Une bouteille pleine	J'ai rempli pleinement la bouteille.	Il est pleinement satisfait.
Une faible lumière	La bougie éclaire faiblement la pièce	Il est faiblement satisfait.
Les sports extrêmes		Je suis extrêmement fatigué Il conduisait extrêmement mal

Adverbs derived from prepositions.
There are not a lot of these: note some common examples:  dedans (from dans), dessus (from sur),  dessous (from sous)  and dehors (from hors).

2.2. Adverbs unrelated to adjectives

There are many common adverbs in French that are not related to adjectives; they can be found in all four types, as illustrated above.  These adverbs include some important groups:

• Several common adverbs of frequency: souvent, parfois,  etc.
• Several common adverbs of degree : assez, très, peu, 
• A number of "Sentence adverbs" , which qualify whole clauses or sentences.

3. Sentence adverbs - les adverbes de phrase

Adverbs qualifying a whole clause or a whole sentence

Some adverbs can apply (or in some cases only apply)  to a whole sentence or statement.
These can be

• adverbs that qualify the whole statement , such as naturellement, évidemment, effectivement,  , or
• conjunctive adverbs (adverbes de liaison) such as  donc, ainsi, pourtant, cependant...  

Sentence adverbs are not ► conjunctions (like et or mais or puisque), since conjunctions must come at the start of their clause; sentence adverbs may have more than one possible position in the clause.

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