#langue

welcome to the first part of this post series on french adverbs, which focuses on adverb formation! 

note - what is an adverb? an adverb is a word that modifies a verb, the same way adjectives modify nouns! 

e.g. she studied quickly.in this case, quickly modifies the verb studied. 

i. regular formation

this works in most cases, but of course, with french, there are always exceptions

take the feminine form of a adjective and add -ment

• parfait (perfect, masc) → parfaite (perfect, fem) → parfaitement(perfectly.) 
  
• malheureux (unfortunate, masc) → malheureuse (unfortunate, fem) → malheureusement(unfortunately)
• réel (real, masc) → réelle (real, fem) → réellement(really)
  

ii. adjectives that end with a vowel 

add an -ment 

• facile (easy) → facilement(easily) 
  
• grave(serious) →gravement(seriously) 

iii. adjectives that end in -ant or -ent 

replace the -ant with an -amment or the -ent with -emment to form an adverb 

• évident (obvious) → évidemment(obviously)
  
• brillant (brillant)  → brillamment(brilliantly)
  

iv. -ément exception 

for some adjectives, you form an adverb by taking the masculine form and adding an -ément to the end.

if the adjective ends with an e in the masculine form, remove then e and then add the -ément 

• aveugle(blind) →aveuglément(blindly) 
  
• commun (common) → communément(commonly) 
• confus (indistinct) → confusément(indistinctly/confusedly) 
• énorme (enormous) → énormément(enormously/tremendously) 
• intense (intense) → intensément(intensely) 
• obscur (obscure) → obscurément(mysteriously) 
• précis (precise) → précisément(precisely)
• profond (profound)  → profondément(profoundly)
• uniforme (uniform) → uniformément(uniformly) 

v. irregular formation 

just memorize them, there really aren’t rules 

• bon(good) →bien(good)
• mauvais (bad) → mal(bad)
• pire(worse) →pis(worse)
• meilleur(better) →mieux(better)
• bref (brief) → brièvement(briefly)
• gentil(gentle) → gentiment (gently) 
• gai(happy) →gaîment (happily)

vi. commonly used adverbs that don’t end in -ment 

• ainsi (in this way/thus)
  
• debout(up/awake/upright)
  
• exprès (on purpose)
  
• vite(quickly) 
  
• volontiers(gladly)