Language/French/Grammar/Adverbs-ending-in-—ment-derived-from-the-feminine-form-of-an-adjective

Adverbs ending in —ment derived from the feminine form of an adjective

Most adverbs ending in -ment are formed from the feminine form of a corresponding adjective:

Once you've mastered this lesson, take a look at these related pages: Possessive determiners, Omission of the article, Adverbs & Pronominal Verbs Agreement.

General rule

Adjective	Feminine	English	Adverb	English
affreux	affreuse	awful	affreusement	awfully
clair	claire	clear	clairement	clearly
distinct	distincte	distinct	distinctement	distinctly
doux	douce	gentle	doucement	gently
mou	molle	soft	mollement	softly
naturel	naturelle	natural	naturellement	naturally
public	publique	public	publiquement	publicly
professionnel	professionnelle	professional	professionnellement	professionally
sec	sèche	dry	sèchement	drily
sûr	sûre	sure	sûrement	surely
vif	vive	alive	vivement	lively

Exception:

Adjective	Feminine	English	Adverb	English
gentil	gentille	kind	gentiment	kindly

Although -ment corresponds broadly to English -ly, French is much less productive than English. Often English -ly adverbs must be translated by phrases.

Other Lessons

• Use of an année, jour journée, matin matinée, soir soirée
• Pronouns
• Polite Form
• Future Tense
• Easy way of generating the imperfect subjunctive
• How to use falloir
• Easy future
• Location of adverbs modifying adjectives, prepositions, noun phrases and other adverbs
• Comparative and superlative forms of adverbs
• Subject verb agreement — Agreement with more than one subject linked by “et”
• Formation of the passive in French
• Adjectives modified by adverbs and prepositional phrases
• Use of en with numerals and quantifiers
• An adjective agreeing with nouns linked by de
• Object pronouns Correctly identifying the direct and indirect objects in English and French