Adverbs add flair

Too, very, really… These are words used to add more information to another word: adverbs. If you want to give your French more flair, you cannot do without them.

An adverbe (adverb) provides additional information about a verb, an adjective, or another adverb. Does that sound complicated? Take a quick look at the examples:

• Didier often helps his neighbor.
  Didier aide souvent sa voisine.
  (Souvent modifies aide)
• Lisa is painting the wall a very ugly color.
  Lisa peint le mur d’une couleur très moche.
  (Très modifies moche)
• The soup is extremely hot.
  La soupe est extrêmement chaude.
  (Extrêmement modifies chaude.)

Adverbs describe how, where, when, or to what extent something happens. The most common ones are listed below.

• Manner: plutôt (rather), bien (well), mieux (better)
• Place: ici (here), ailleurs (elsewhere), partout (everywhere)
• Time: jamais (never), tard (late), autrefois (formerly)
• Quantity: assez (enough), trop (too much), encore (still/yet)
• Affirmation: vraiment (really), bien sûr (of course), sans doute (undoubtedly)
• Negation: ne … guère (hardly), ne … pas (not), ne … point (not at all)

Adverbes de manière

Adverbs that indicate how something happens are called adverbes de manière. These often end in -ment, comparable to the English suffix ‘-ly’.

For example: Fortunately, he found a solution. / Il a heureusement trouvé une solution. The word fortunately/heureusement is the adverb of manner here.

You form adverbes de manière as follows:

• Feminine form of the adjective + -ment.
  Examples:
  • heureux/heureuse → heureusement (fortunately)
  • doux/douce → doucement (gently)

Exceptions

• Accent on the -e before -ment:
  • confus → confusément (confusedly)
  • énorm → énormément (enormously)
• Masculine form with -é, -ai, -i, -u:
  • vrai → vraiment (really)
  • aisé → aisément (easily)
• Adjectives ending in -ant/-ent:
  • constant → constamment (constantly)
  • évident → évidemment (obviously)