Adverbs (les adverbes) are describing words: they can describe a verb, an adjective, a sentence or another adverb. They give us more information about time, place, frequency, reason or manner. French adverbs can consist of one word (demain, très, vite…), groups of words (tout à coup, jusque-là…) or words ending in -ment (simplement, heureusement…).
1. Difference between adjectives and adverbs
Although adjectives and adverbs are both types of describing words, they have different grammatical functions, meaning that they are not used in the same situations.
- Adjectives describe nouns. They agree with the number and gender of the noun they modify.
- Les souris sont heureuses et nous regardent en riant. (The mice are happy and look at us laughing)
How are the mice? – heureuses (happy)
- Adverbs describe an adjective, a verb, another adverb or even an entire sentence. In contrast to adjectives, adverbs are invariable: they do not change their form to match the number and gender of the noun they are describing.
- Elles ont fait un très bon travail. (They did a very good job.)
The adverb très describes the adjective bon.
- Elles ont bien travaillé. (They worked well)
The adverb bien describes the verb travailler.
- Elles on vraiment bien travaillé. (They worked really well)
The adverb vraiment describes the other adverb bien.
- Heureusement, elles ont bientôt fini. (Fortunately, they are soon over)
The adverb heureusement describes the whole sentence.
⚠️ Bon and bien are tricky words for learners of French to understand. Generally speaking, bon is mostly used as an adjective (similar to the English good) while bien is most commonly used as an adverb (similar to the English well). However, there are exceptions.
- We use bon as an adjective to describe nouns (une bonne amie, un bon dessert…)
- Les employés de cette société entretiennent de bonnes relations avec leur patron. (The employees of this company have a good relationship with their boss)
- Bon is only used as an adverb after specific verbs such as sentir bon, faire bon…
- Il fait bon ce soir, allons donc nous promener. (The weather is good tonight, so let's go for a walk)
- In contrast, bien is mostly used as an adverb with verbs in the sense of “well” (j’ai bien travaillé…) or with adjectives in the sense of “very” or “really” (il est bien fatigué, cette maison est bien belle…)
- Le repas était délicieux, nous avons bien mangé. (The meal was delicious, we ate well)
- After the verb être, bon and bien can both be used as adjectives. But be aware, there is a difference in meaning:
- We use bon to talk about concrete things or to make sensory judgements relating to things like food, temperature etc.
- Tu devrais venir te baigner, l’eau est vraiment bonne! (You should come and swim, the water is really good!)
- We use bien to talk about more abstract concepts or to make moral and intellectual judgements. We also use it in the phrase c’est bien de + infinitive (it’s good to…).
- Ce film est vraiment bien, vous devriez aller le voir. (This movie is really good, you should go see it)
- C’est bien d’aider ses amis. (It is good to help friends)
French adverbs into ten main types: de lieu (place), de temps (time), de quantité (amount), de relation logique (causal), de manière (manner), modaux (modal), d’affirmation (affirming), de négation (negating), d’interrogation (questions) and de liaison (conjunctions).
Adverbs of place (les adverbes de lieu) allow us to answer the question where?. They give information about the location where an action takes place. The most important French adverbs of place are:
à côté, à droite, à gauche, ailleurs, à l’intérieur, dedans, dehors, derrière, devant, dessous, dessus, en bas en face, en haut, ici. là, là-bas, loin, nulle part, partout, près, quelque part, tout droit
- Les autres ont voulu nous attendre à l’intérieur. (The others wanted to wait for us inside)
Adverbs of time (les adverbes de temps) answer the question when?. They give information about the moment in which an action happened. The most important adverbs of time in French grammar are:
aujourd’hui, après, aussitôt, autrefois, avant, bientôt, d‘abord, déjà, demain, encore, enfin, en même temps, ensuite, hier, jadis, jamais, maintenant, quelquefois, parfois, puis, rarement, soudain, souvent, tard, toujours, tôt, tout à coup, tout de suite
- Hier, j’étais à un concert de rock avec des amis. (Yesterday I was at a rock concert with some friends)
Adverbs of amount (les adverbes de quantité) answer the question how much?. They express a quantity. The most important French adverbs of amount are:
assez, aussi, autant, beaucoup, davantage, encore, environ, moins, peu, plus, presque, seulement, tant, tellement, tout, très, trop, un peu
- Mais il y avait là-bas trop de monde. (But there were too many people there)
Causal adverbs or adverbs of reason (les adverbes de relation logique) answer the question why?. They express the cause behind an action. The most important causal adverbs in French are:
aussi, cependant, donc, en revanche, encore, même, par ailleurs, par conséquent, pourtant, quand même, seulement, tout de même, toutefois
- Nous avons donc attendu la fin du concert. (So we waited for the end of the concert)
Adverbs of manner (les adverbes de manère) answer the question how?. These adverbs give information about the way in which an action is performed. The most important French adverbs of manner are:
ainsi, bien, calmement, debout, d’habitude, doucement, ensemble, fort, gentiment, mal, mieux, plutôt, surtout, vite
- Nous sommes rentrés ensemble à la maison. (We went home together)
Modal adverbs (les adverbes modaux) don’t refer to a specific part of the sentence, instead they indicate the speaker’s opinion about the topic. The most important modal adverbs in French are:
hélas, heureusement, malheureusement, par bonheur, certainement
- Je n’avais certainement jamais vu autant de monde. (I had certainly never seen so many people)
Adverbs of affirmation (les adverbes d’affirmation) can reinforce statements or can soften the impact of a statement. The most important adverbs of affirmation in French are:
assurément, certainement, certes, oui, peut-être, précisément, probablement, sans doute, volontiers, vraiment
- J’aurais volontiers rejoint mes amis. (I would have gladly joined my friends)
Adverbs of negation (les adverbs de négation) are used to negate a sentence. These adverbs are often phrases formed with ne. The most common adverbs of negation are:
ne … aucunement, ne … jamais, ne … pas, ne … plus, ne … rien, non, pas du tout
- Je n’avais certainement jamais vu autant de monde. (I had certainly never seen so many people)
2.9 Interrogative Adverbs (Question Words)
Interrogative adverbs (les adverbes d’interrogation) are question words. The most important ones are:
combien, comment, pourquoi, quand, où
- Où étaient-ils? (Where were they?)
Conjunctional adverbs (les adverbes de liaison) connect phrases together. They act as conjunctions in a sentence, hence their name. The most important conjunctional adverbs are:
ainsi, alors, certes, donc, en effet, ensuite, enfin, néanmoins, par contre, pourtant, puis
- Nous avons donc attendu la fin du concert et enfin nous les avons trouvés. (So we waited for the end of the concert and finally we found them)