Language/French/Grammar/English-and-French-adverb-formation

English and French adverb formation

-ly is a more productive form in English than -ment is in French. Therefore, not every English form in -ly will find a ready translation in -ment in French. The most frequent solution is an adverbial phrase introduced by a preposition such as avec, d'une manière. . ., d'une façon. . ., sur un ton . . .:

French	English
avec colère, sur le ton de la colère	angrily
d'une manière concise, avec concision	concisely
avec charme, d'une manière charmante	charmingly
avec beaucoup de talent/d'imagination	creatively
sur le ton de la plaisanterie	jokingly
de façon possessive	possessively
de façon réfléchie	reflectively
avec tristesse	sadly
avec entêtement	stubbornly
de façon surprenante, à ma/ta grande surprise	surprisingly
sur un ton vengeur	vengefully

When colours are used as adverbs they are preceded by en:

French	English
le colorier en bleu	to colour it blue
le peindre en rouge	to paint it red

When shapes are used as adverbs, they have to be turned into an expression involving a noun in French:

French	English
lui donner une forme ronde	to make it round
le couper au carré	to cut it square

Related Lessons

• Degree adverbs
• Problems with passive different direct objects
• Verbs which are directly transitive in French
• Measurements and comparisons Numbers with length, height, depth etc
• Hyphens in Cardinal Numbers
• Plurals
• Subject verb agreement when subject quantifiers are present
• Nouns which change meaning when they change gender
• Omission of the article in compound nouns linked by à
• Gender of makes of vehicle and machines
• Ambiguity of reference of lui and leur
• Adjectifs possessifs
• Polite Form
• Location of adverbs modifying sentences
• Use of the definite article with seasons