Language/French/Grammar/Sentence-modifying-adverbs

Sentence-modifying adverbs in French

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

[CHANGED]

Sentence-modifying adverbs can be classified into two types. The first type establishes a link between what has been said already and what is being said now:

Link between what has been said already and what is being said now

Those which establish a link between what has been said already and what is being said now:

• La porte de la pièce est fermée. Je l'ai pourtant laissée ouverte derrière moi

The door to the room is closed. Yet I left it open behind me (pourtant highlights the contrast between a previous state of affairs and the current state of affairs)

• Les arguments en faveur de cette ligne politique sont clairs. Nous devons donc la suivre de près

The arguments in favour of this policy are clear. Therefore we should follow it closely (done signals a causal link between the first sentence and the second)

Assessment of the probability of the event described being true

The second group of sentence-modifying adverbs express the speaker's assessment of the probability or desirability of the event described by the sentence being true:

• Elle était pauvre, probablement

She was probably poor (probablement is the speaker's judgement of the likelihood of her being poor)

• Je n'ai malheureusement pas pu venir

Unfortunately I wasn't able to come (malheureusement is an expression of the speaker's regret at not being able to come)

Representative examples

Here are some representative examples of these two types of sentence-modifying adverbs:

• J'ai beaucoup travaillé pour terminer à temps. Cependant, ils n'ont pas voulu me payer mon treizième mois

I worked very hard to finish in time. Yet they refused to pay me my bonus

• M Bergamote a expliqué la situation très clairement. En effet, nous devrons prendre une décision aujourd'hui même

Mr Bergamote explained the situation very clearly. Indeed, we must take a decision this very day

• Jouer en Bourse est une bonne occupation pour ceux qui s'y connaissent. En revanche, cela peut être une catastrophe pour ceux qui n'y connaissent rien

Playing the Stock Exchange is a sensible activity for those who know what they're doing. On the other hand, it can be a catastrophe for those who don't

• Le bateau a coulé au mois de juin. Néanmoins, la compagnie d'assurance établissait toujours les faits au mois de décembre

The boat sank in June. Nonetheless, the insurance company was still trying to establish the facts in December

• Mon fils ne m'écrit jamais. Sa soeur, par contre, me tient au courant de tout ce qu'elle fait

My son never writes to me. His sister, on the other hand, keeps me informed of everything she is doing

• Alors, que préférait-elle?

So, what did she prefer?

• Ils me répondraient, bien sûr, que j'aurais pu le faire depuis longtemps

They would reply, of course, that I could have done it long before

Typical sentence-linking and speaker-oriented adverbs

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• Je n'aurais certainement pas pu le comprendre

I certainly couldn't have understood it

• Elle ne s'en doutait certes pas

She certainly didn't suspect it

• Le prof a du moins cette qualité qu'il articule bien

The teacher has at least this quality, that he speaks very clearly

• C'est sans doute un ami

He's probably a friend

• II a entrepris cette démarche avec de très bonnes intentions. Seulement, il ne possédait pas les connaissances requises

He took these steps with the very best of intentions. Only he didn't have the knowledge required

Related Lessons

• Intransitive Verb constructions
• Differences in the use of numbers in French and English once twice
• Invariable adjectives
• Changes in the stem form of some —er conjugation verbs
• How to Use Be
• Adjectives which normally occur before the noun
• Easy future
• Direct object quantifiers and « en »
• Nouns which refer both to males and to females
• Absolute use of the superlative
• Benefactive me, te, se, nous, vous
• Impersonal subject restricted to il
• Emphasizing me, te, se, nous, vous by adding a pronoun + même
• Subject verb agreement — Verb “être”
• Adjective—adjective compounds