Language/French/Grammar/Location-of-adverbs-modifying-verb-phrases

Location of adverbs modifying verb phrases

Adverbs which modify the verb phrase (manner, degree, some time and place adverbs) and adverbs which modify the sentence may have several possible locations.

Manner, degree and time adverbs which consist of just one word usually immediately follow the tense-marked verb:

• Elle a soigneusement étendu son tailleur sur le lit

She carefully laid out her suit on the bed

• On ramène parfois des souvenirs

We sometimes bring back souvenirs

• J'ai souvent voulu le faire

1 have often wanted to do it

• Ils ont beaucoup discuté pendant le weekend

They discussed a lot during the weekend

• Il a mal lu l'étiquette

He misread the label

• Elles ont toujours refusé de me parler

They have always refused to talk to me

NB: With verbs in simple tenses it is normal in French for these adverbs to occur between the verb and its complement, but not between the subject and the verb: the reverse is the case in English:

• On ramène parfois des souvenirs NOT *On parfois ramène des souvenirs

• Je veux souvent le faire NOT *Je souvent veux le faire

• Elles refusent toujours de me parler NOT *Elles toujours refusent de me parler

Usually manner, degree and time adverbs consisting of just one word and modifying the verb phrase can also appear at the end of the clause:

• Elle a étendu son tailleur soigneusement
• On ramène des souvenirs parfois

But some appear most naturally in a clause-internal position after the verb. This tends to be the case for short monosyllabic adverbs: bien, mal, vite, trop, tant. An exception, though, is time adverbs which designate specific moments in the past or future: hier 'yesterday', demain 'tomorrow', la veille 'the day before', and so on. These usually appear at the beginning or the end of a clause, not in the middle:

• J'ai ramassé les clefs hier OR Hier j'ai ramassé les clefs

I picked up the keys yesterday

• La veille elle avait vendu sa maison OR Elle avait vendu sa maison la veille

She had sold her house the day before

Adverbs of manner, degree and time which consist of more than a single word, together with place adverbs as a class, usually come at the beginning or end of a clause, not in the middle:

• II a emporté le dossier à dessin

He took the file away on purpose

• Ici tout le monde fait la vaisselle

Everybody does the washing-up here

• Nous voulons habiter ailleurs

We want to live elsewhere

• Derrière il y a un champ de betteraves

Behind there is a beet field

• Vous trouverez l'étiquette dessous

You'll find the label on the bottom

• On a laissé des papiers un peu partout

Papers were left almost everywhere

It is always possible, however, for such adverbs to occur clause-internally with heavy pausing on either side (indicated by commas in written French). This has the effect of stressing the adverb:

• J'ai ramassé, hier, les clefs
• Quelqu'un, dehors, s'est inquiété
• Il y a, derrière, un champ de betteraves

After mastering this lesson, these related pages might interest you: Possessive determiners, Omission of the article, Difference between Nombre, Chiffre and Numéro & il or ça alternating with noun phrase subjects.

Other Chapters

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

• Demonstrative pronouns
• Years
• Infinitives
• Confusions English and French direct object
• Forms of créer, nier, scier, rire, etc
• Use of l'on
• Coordination of subject pronouns
• Adverbs ending in —ment derived from the masculine form of an adjective
• Use of the definite article with parts of the body
• Differences in the use of numbers in French and English mille milliers milliards
• Reflexive pronouns
• Pronouns
• Imperative mood
• Location of adverbs modifying sentences
• Masculine Nouns Ending in ée