Adverbs: formation and position
Summary
Most French adverbs of manner are built by adding -ment to the feminine form of the adjective; a few are irregular, and their placement depends on the tense and the type of adverb.
Explanation
The regular way to turn an adjective into an adverb of manner is to take the feminine singular form and add -ment. So lent → lente → lentement (slowly), doux → douce → doucement (gently), heureux → heureuse → heureusement (luckily), franc → franche → franchement (frankly). Building on the feminine, not the masculine, is the key step that learners most often skip.
When the masculine adjective already ends in a vowel, the adverb is built on that masculine form (the feminine -e adds nothing audible): vrai → vraiment (really), poli → poliment (politely), absolu → absolument (absolutely). A small group takes an accented é before -ment: précis → précisément, énorme → énormément, profond → profondément. Vraiment is worth memorising because the e of vraie simply drops.
Adjectives ending in -ant and -ent follow a special pattern: -ant becomes -amment and -ent becomes -emment. Thus constant → constamment, courant → couramment, évident → évidemment, récent → récemment, intelligent → intelligemment. Both endings are pronounced identically, [amɑ̃], which makes the spelling a frequent source of error. The regular exception is lentement, formed normally because lent has a distinct feminine lente.
Several of the most common adverbs are irregular and must be learned separately. The adjective bon gives the adverb bien (well), mauvais gives mal (badly), meilleur gives mieux (better), and petit gives peu in many senses. Vite (quickly) is an adverb with no adjective base at all. Do not confuse the adjective bon/meilleur with the adverb bien/mieux: c'est bon (it tastes good) versus il chante bien (he sings well).
Placement depends on the structure. With a simple tense, a manner adverb normally follows the conjugated verb: il parle lentement, elle travaille bien. In compound tenses, short common adverbs (bien, mal, déjà, encore, trop, beaucoup, vite, souvent) usually go between the auxiliary and the past participle: il a bien mangé, j'ai déjà fini, nous avons trop bu. Longer adverbs in -ment tend to come after the participle: il a répondu intelligemment.
Adverbs of time and place behave more freely. They often sit at the beginning or the end of the clause rather than next to the verb: hier, nous sommes restés à la maison; je le ferai demain; il habite ici. An adverb that modifies an adjective or another adverb is placed directly in front of it: très grand, assez vite, trop tard, presque toujours.
Examples
Elle conduit lentement et prudemment. — She drives slowly and carefully. (lent → lente → lentement; prudent → prudemment (-ent → -emment).)
Il parle vraiment bien le français. — He really speaks French well. (vraiment (vowel-stem, e drops) + irregular adverb bien.)
Nous avons déjà mangé. — We have already eaten. (Short adverb déjà sits between auxiliary and past participle.)
Tu as répondu très intelligemment. — You answered very intelligently. (Long -ment adverb follows the participle; très modifies it from the front.)
Aujourd'hui, ils travaillent mieux qu'hier. — Today they are working better than yesterday. (Time adverbs at clause edges; mieux is the irregular adverb of bon.)
Common mistakes
Il a répondu très intelligentment et évidentment il avait raison.
Il a répondu très intelligemment et évidemment il avait raison.
Adjectives ending in -ant and -ent do not form their adverb by adding -ment to the whole adjective. Instead, -ant becomes -amment and -ent becomes -emment (constant → constamment, évident → évidemment, intelligent → intelligemment, récent → récemment). A very common error is to write *intelligentment or *évidentment, keeping the adjective intact. Note that both endings are pronounced the same way, [amɑ̃], even though one is spelled -amment and the other -emment. The only frequent exception is lentement (from lent), because lent ends in -ent but is built regularly on the feminine lente.
Prerequisites
Related rules
adverbsword-formationword-order