Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs.
Common French adverbs include:
| assez | — rather |
| beaucoup | — much; a lot |
| bien | — well |
| mal | — badly |
| peu | — little; not very |
| trèes | — very |
| trop | — too; too much; |
| lentement | — slowly |
| vite | — fast; quickly |
| presque | — almost |
| tellment | — so (extremely) |
French adverbs associated with time include:
| maintenant | — now |
| tout de suite | — right now |
| plus tard | — later |
| deja | — already |
| tot | — early |
| tard | — late |
| encore | — still; yet |
| quelquefois | — sometimes |
| rarement | — rarely |
| très peu | — rarely, hardly ever |
| souvent | — often |
| toujours | — always |
| quelquefois | — sometimes |
| en ce moment | — right now |
| tout a l'heure | — in a while |
French adverbs associated with spatial relationships include:
| a droite | — xxxxxxxx |
| a gauche | — xxxxxxxx |
| a l'arriere | — xxxxxxxx |
| a l'exterieur | — xxxxxxxx |
| au fond | — xxxxxxxx |
| dehors | — xxxxxxxx |
| en event | — xxxxxxxx |
| en face de | — xxxxxxxx |
| en bas | — xxxxxxxx |
| la | — xxxxxxxx |
| la-bas | — xxxxxxxx |
| la haut | — xxxxxxxx |
| loin | — xxxxxxxx |
| pres | — xxxxxxxx |
| tout pres | — xxxxxxxx |
Many French adverbs are formed from adjectives, using the suffix -ment. This corresponds to the suffix "-ly" in English.
When -ment is added to a masculine adjective, and the adjective ends in a consonant, the adjective is converted to the feminine form in order to accept the suffix:
| doux / douce | — doucement |
| heureux / heureuse | — huereusement |
| lent / lente | — lentement |
Adjectives ending in -ent or -ant take on the suffixes -emment and -amment:
| constant | — constamment |
| diffèrent | — diffèremment |
| intelligent | — intelligemment |
Note the French equivalents for the English "more ____ than," "as _____ as," "less ______ than." In French, the indirect object (i.e., the compared noun) is introduced with a que:
| Vous jouez le piano aussi bien que ma souer. | — You play the piano as well as my sister. |
| Il parle plus lentement que vous. | — He speaks more slowly than you. |