Language/French/Grammar/Location-of-adverbs

Location of Adverbs in French Grammar

In French, adverbs are used to modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. In this lesson, we will explore the placement of adverbs in French.

Adverbs that Modify Verbs

Adverbs that modify verbs usually come after the verb in French. For example:

• Elle parle français couramment. (She speaks French fluently.)
• Il mange rapidement. (He eats quickly.)

Note that in compound tenses, the adverb usually comes after the auxiliary verb. For example:

• Il a parlé couramment français. (He spoke French fluently.)
• Elle va courir lentement. (She is going to run slowly.)

Adverbs that Modify Adjectives and Other Adverbs

Adverbs that modify adjectives or other adverbs usually come before the word they modify in French. For example:

• Elle est très intelligente. (She is very intelligent.)
• Il marche extrêmement lentement. (He walks extremely slowly.)

Note that some adverbs, such as "très" and "vraiment," can also be placed after the adjective or adverb they modify. For example:

• Elle est intelligente très. (She is very intelligent.)
• Il marche lentement vraiment. (He walks really slowly.)

Adverbs of Place and Time

Adverbs of place and time usually come at the beginning or end of a sentence in French. For example:

• Hier, nous sommes allés au cinéma. (Yesterday, we went to the cinema.)
• Ici, il y a beaucoup de gens. (Here, there are a lot of people.)

Note that some adverbs of time, such as "toujours" (always) and "jamais" (never), can also come before the verb. For example:

• Toujours, je vais au parc le dimanche. (Always, I go to the park on Sundays.)
• Jamais, il ne mange de viande. (He never eats meat.)

Conclusion

Understanding the placement of adverbs in French is an essential part of mastering the language. By knowing where to place adverbs that modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs, and adverbs of place and time, you can improve your French language skills and communicate more effectively with native speakers.

Table of Contents

Nouns

• Types
• Gender
• Plural

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Determiners

• Articles
• Typical use of the definite article
• Typical use of the indefinite article
• The partitive article: du, de l', de la, des
• Use of indefinite and partitive articles after the negative forms ne... pas, ne... jamais, ne... plus, ne... guère
• Omission of the article
• Demonstrative determiners
• Possessive determiners

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Personal and impersonal pronouns

• Subject pronouns
• Object pronouns
• Stressed pronouns
• Demonstrative pronouns
• Possessive pronouns

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Adjectives

• Adjectives modifying the noun
• Adjectives which follow verbs or verbal expressions
• Adjectives with complements
• Indefinite and negative noun phrases with adjective complements
• Adjectives used as nouns
• Adjectives used as adverbs
• Masculine and feminine forms of adjectives
• Plural forms of adjectives
• Adjective agreement with nouns
• Invariable adjectives
• Compound adjectives
• Comparative and superlative forms of adjectives
• Subjunctive versus indicative in clauses dependent on a superlative adjective
• Absolute use of the superlative

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Adverbs

• Function of adverbs
• Formation of adverbs with the ending -ment
• Adjectives used as adverbs without addition of -ment
• Phrases used as adverbs
• English and French adverb formation
• Types of adverbs
• Location of adverbs

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Numbers, measurements, time and quantifiers

• Cardinal numbers
• Ordinal numbers
• Fractions
• Some differences in the use of cardinal and ordinal numbers in French and English
• Measurements and comparisons
• Dates, days, years
• Clock time
• Money
• Quantifiers

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Verb forms

• Conjugations
• Easy ways of generating some parts of the paradigms
• Changes in the stem form of some -er conjugation verbs
• Verbs whose stems end in c- or g-
• Verb paradigms

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Verb constructions

• Relations between verbs and their complements
• Intransitive constructions
• Directly transitive verbs
• Indirectly transitive verbs
• Ditransitive verbs
• The passive
• Pronominal verbs
• Impersonal verbs
• Verbs which take noun + adjective or noun + noun complements

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Verb and participle agreement

• Subject-verb agreement
• Agreement of the past participle with the subject of être
• Agreement of the past participle of verbs conjugated with avoir with a preceding direct object
• Agreement of the past participle of pronominal verbs in compound tenses

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Tense

• The present
• The past
• The future
• Other tenses indicating the time at which events occur relative to other events
• Combining tenses
• Tenses in direct and reported descriptions of events
• Tenses with si

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The subjunctive, modal verbs, exclamatives and imperatives

• The attitude of the subject to events: the subjunctive
• The use of devoir, pouvoir, savoir, falloir
• The French equivalents of the English modal verbs: 'would', 'should', 'could', 'may', 'might', 'ought to', and 'must'
• Exclamatives
• Imperatives

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The infinitive

• Introduction: what are infinitives?
• Infinitives as complements to other verbs
• Verbs which take infinitive complements without a linking preposition
• Verbs which take infinitive complements preceded by the preposition à
• Verbs which take an infinitive complement preceded by de
• Omission of objects before infinitives
• Infinitives as complements to adjectives
• Infinitives as complements to nouns
• Infinitives in subordinate clauses
• Infinitives as polite commands
• Quick-reference index to verbs taking infinitive complements

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Prepositions

• Introduction
• Prepositions listed alphabetically from à to vers
• French translations for common English prepositions

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Question formation

• Introduction
• Yes/no questions
• Information questions
• Order of object pronouns in questions involving inversion
• Order of negative particles in questions involving inversion
• Use of question words and phrases: qui?, que?, quoi?, quel?, de qui?, avec combien de? etc.
• Indirect questions

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Relative clauses

• Introduction
• Use of relative qui
• Use of relative que
• Preposition plus qui
• Use of lequel in relative clauses
• Use of dont, de qui, duquel/de laquelle/desquels/desquelles
• The use of où as a relative pronoun
• Use of relative quoi
• Free relative clauses and the use of ce qui, ce que, ce dont, ce à quoi, ce sur quoi, etc.
• Translating 'whoever', 'whatever', 'wherever', 'whenever', 'however'
• Indicative and subjunctive in relative clauses

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Negation

• Introduction
• Location of sentence negators
• Order of negators in multiple negation
• Omission of ne in sentence negation
• Order of negative elements in questions and imperatives
• ne... pas
• ne... que
• ne... aucun(e), ne... nul(le)
• ne... jamais
• ne... plus
• ne... guère
• ne... rien
• ne... personne
• ne... ni... ni
• sans used with other negators
• ne used alone

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Conjunctions and other linking constructions

• Introduction
• Coordinating conjunctions
• Subordinating conjunctions
• Conjunctions sometimes confused by English speakers
• Repeated subordinating conjunctions
• Subordinating conjunctions used with infinitive clauses
• après avoir/ être + past participle linking an infinitive clause to a main clause
• Past participle phrases used as linkers
• Present participles and gerunds

Other Lessons

• Adverb—adjective compounds
• Coordination of subject pronouns
• Impersonal subject restricted to il
• Repetition of the definite article
• Stressed pronouns used as the object of a preposition
• Possessive determiners
• Masculine and feminine forms of adjectives — A change from a nasal vowel to an oral vowel
• Irregular plurals for nouns ending in –ail
• Adjectives used as adverbs without addition of —ment
• Verbs whose stems end in c— or g—