The full guide to French adverbs

In contrast to adjectives which modify nouns, adverbs can be used to modify verbs, adjectives and even other adverbs.

Examples of adverbs used to modify verbs

The two diagrams below show examples of French phrases where the adverb modifies the verb:

Example of a French adverb which modifies a verb Example of a French adverb which modifies a verb

Remark about the direction of the arrows: These diagrams are dependency trees which show the syntactic structure of a sentence. The direction of the arrows goes from a head word to its dependent word.

When an adverb modifies a word, the adverb is a dependent of that word. Hence the direction of the arrow is from the word being modified to the adverb.

Examples of adverbs used to modify adjectives

Here is an example where the adverb (“plus”) modifies the adjective (“joli”):

Example of a French adverb which modifies an adjective

Here is another example of an adverb (“relativement”) used to modify an adjective (“intuitif”):

Example of a French adverb which modifies an adjective

Examples of adverbs used to modify other adverbs

Here is an example where the adverb (“très”) modifies another adverb (“rapidement”):

Example of a French adverb which modifies another adverb

Here is another example of an adverb (“encore”) used to modify another adverb (“mieux”):

Example of a French adverb which modifies another adverb

French adverbs ending in -ment

In French, many adverbs are derived from adjectives by adding the suffix -ment. This is similar to how the English language uses the suffix -ly to create an adverb from an adjective.

Although the rule is simple, there are two special cases to this pattern of forming adverbs from adjectives. These concern adjectives ending in “-ent” and in “-ant”.

Adverbs derived from adjectives ending in -ent

French adverbs which are formed from adjectives ending in “-ent” replace that ending with “-emment”. Here are some examples:

Table: examples of French adverbs derived from adjectives ending in -ent
French adverb formation
évidemment (evidently) évident + -emment
récemment (recently) récent + -emment
apparemment (apparently) apparent + -emment
impatiemment (impatiently) impatient + -emment
différemment (differently) différent + -emment
précédemment (before now) précédent + -emment
prudemment (carefully) prudent + -emment
fréquemment (often) fréquent + -emment
violemment (violently) violent + -emment
pertinemment (pertinently) pertinent + -emment
décemment (decently) décent + -emment
consciemment (consciously) conscient + -emment

An exception to this pattern is the adverb “lentement” (lente + ment).

Adverbs created from adjectives ending in -ant

French adverbs which are formed from adjectives ending in "-ant" replace that ending with “-amment”. Here are some examples:

Table: examples of French adverbs derived from adjectives ending in -ant
French adverb formation
suffisamment (sufficiently) suffisant + -amment
couramment (fluently or commonly) courant + -amment
indépendamment (independently) indépendant + -amment
abondamment (abundantly) abondant + -amment
constamment (constantly) constant + -amment
brillamment (brilliantly) brillant + -amment
étonnamment (surprisingly ) étonnant + -amment
bruyamment (noisily) bruyant + -amment
incessamment (unceasingly) incessant + -amment

Adverbs created from adjectives which neither end in -ent nor in -ant

Now that we have covered the special cases, we move on to the general and most common case. When forming adverbs from these adjectives, in most cases it is the feminine form of the adjective which is used.

An acute accent is added to the ‘e’ in some cases, in order to facilitate the pronunciation. For example:

Table: examples of adverb formation where an acute accent is added to facilitate the pronunciation
French adverb formation
précisément (precise) précise + -ment
énormément (enormously) énorme + -ment
profondément (deeply) profonde + -ment
conformément (accordingly) conforme + -ment
intensément (intensely) intense + -ment
communément (commonly) commune + -ment

Here is a list of the most common French adverbs which are formed simply by adding the suffix -ment to an adjective.

In most cases the feminine form of the adjective is used. In the table we have sometimes indicated the masculine form of the adjective even in cases when the feminine form is used to create the adverb.

Table: examples of French adverbs which are formed by adding the suffix -ment to an adjective
French adverb formation
éventuellement (possibly) éventuel + -ment
entièrement (entirely) entier + -ment
seulement (only) seule + -ment
actuellement (currently) actuelle + -ment
également (also / equally) égal + -ment
simplement (simply) simple + -ment
vraiment (truly) vrai + -ment
nécessairement (necessarily) nécessaire + -ment
facilement (easily) facile + -ment
probablement (probably) probable + -ment
lentement (slowly) lente + -ment
parfaitement (perfectly) parfait + -ment
absolument (absolutely) absolu + -ment
doucement (softly) douce + -ment
rapidement (speedily) rapide + -ment
exactement (exactly) exact + -ment
complètement (completely) complet + -ment
immédiatement (immediately) immédiate + -ment
clairement (clearly) clair + -ment
rarement (rarely) rare + -ment
malheureusement (unfortunately) malheureux + -ment
particulièrement (particularly) particulier + -ment
totalement (totally) totale + -ment
généralement (generally) générale + -ment
heureusement (luckily) heureux + -ment
autrement (otherwise) autre + -ment

French adverbs which do not end in -ment

In French, there are also many adverbs which are not derived from adjectives. Here are some examples of these: