Lesson 14: Adverbs and comparison

Part 1: Making an adverb from an adjective — the -ment formula

Take the feminine form of the adjective, add -ment.

This is the same instinct as English "happy → happily" or "quick → quickly" — except French builds it off the feminine, because that's the form that already ends in a useful consonant.

Adjective (m.)	Feminine	Adverb	Meaning
lent	lente	lentement	slowly
doux	douce	doucement	softly, gently
heureux	heureuse	heureusement	happily, luckily
franc	franche	franchement	frankly
sérieux	sérieuse	sérieusement	seriously
naturel	naturelle	naturellement	naturally
parfait	parfaite	parfaitement	perfectly
premier	première	premièrement	first(ly)

Three sub-types

1. Adjective already ends in a vowel (masculine) — just add -ment to the masculine form, no detour through the feminine:

vrai → vraiment (really)	poli → poliment (politely)	absolu → absolument (absolutely)	facile → facilement (easily)

Why? You don't need the feminine "e" — there's already a vowel to attach -ment to.

2. Adjectives ending in -ant → -amment, ending in -ent → -emment (both pronounced "ah-mahn"):

courant → couramment (fluently)	constant → constamment (constantly)	fréquent → fréquemment (frequently)	évident → évidemment (obviously)	apparent → apparemment (apparently)

Trap! Both endings -amment and -emment are pronounced the same — "ah-mahn". Don't read -emment as "eh-mahn". Évidemment sounds like "ay-vee-dah-MAHN".

3. Special forms — memorize them:

Adjective	Adverb	Meaning
bon	bien	well
mauvais	mal	badly
rapide	vite (or rapidement)	fast / quickly
meilleur	mieux	better
pire	pire / pis	worse
petit	peu	little (in quantity)
gentil	gentiment	kindly, nicely
précis	précisément	precisely
profond	profondément	deeply

Do NOT confuse: bon is an adjective (un bon vin — a good wine), bien is an adverb (il chante bien — he sings well). English makes the same distinction — "a good wine" vs "she sings well" — but English speakers learning French regularly say il chante bon by accident. It's exactly as wrong as saying "she sings good".

Memory hook: Moi, je suis bon en français — je parle bien français. "I'm good at French — I speak French well."

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Part 2: Where to put the adverb

Rule	Example
Simple tense — after the verb	Il parle lentement. (He speaks slowly.)
In a negative — after pas	Il ne parle pas lentement.
Compound tense (passé composé) — short adverbs go between auxiliary and participle	Il a bien dormi. / J'ai trop mangé.
Long -ment adverbs — usually after the participle	Il a parlé franchement.
With an adjective or another adverb — before it	C'est très bon. / Elle court trop vite.
At the start of a sentence — for emphasis	Heureusement, il est là. (Luckily, he's here.)

Short adverbs that love the "in-between" slot (memorize the list): bien, mal, déjà, encore, souvent, toujours, beaucoup, trop, peu, vite, presque.

Trap for English speakers: English often puts the adverb before the verb — "he well understands", "she quickly finished". In French the adverb goes after a simple verb: Il comprend bien, Elle a fini rapidement. Never Il bien comprend.

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Part 3: The comparative

One formula, works for adjectives and adverbs:

plus / moins / aussi + adjective/adverb + que + second element

= more / less / as + adjective + than / as

Type	Formula	Example
more (>)	plus … que	Marie est plus grande que Paul. (Marie is taller than Paul.)
less (<)	moins … que	Le thé est moins cher que le café. (Tea is less expensive than coffee.)
as … as (=)	aussi … que	Il court aussi vite que moi. (He runs as fast as me.)

The adjective agrees with the subject (as always):

• Elles sont plus intelligentes que leurs frères. (They [f.] are smarter than their brothers.)
• Ces livres sont moins intéressants que ces films.

After que use the stressed pronoun: moi, toi, lui, elle, nous, vous, eux, elles.

• Tu es plus jeune que moi. (NOT que je.)

This matches the English instinct — "younger than me", not "younger than I" (in everyday speech).

Comparing quantities (with a noun)

plus de / moins de / autant de + noun + que

• J'ai plus de livres que toi. (I have more books than you.)
• Elle a autant d'amis que sa sœur. (She has as many friends as her sister.)
• Nous mangeons moins de viande que vous. (We eat less meat than you.)

Don't confuse! plus que — comparing a quality or action. plus de — comparing a quantity (always followed by a noun). Think of de as the partitive "of" — "more of books".

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Part 4: Irregular comparatives — meilleur and mieux

Two words everyone gets wrong. The logic is the same as bon / bien: adjective vs adverb.

Positive	Comparative	Type
bon (good)	meilleur(e)(s) (better — adjective)	agrees in gender/number!
bien (well)	mieux (better — adverb)	invariable
mauvais (bad)	pire or plus mauvais	adjective
mal (badly)	pire or plus mal	adverb

Examples:

• Ce vin est meilleur que l'autre. (This wine is better than the other one. — wine is what? → adjective)
• Elle chante mieux que moi. (She sings better than me. — sings how? → adverb)
• Tu vas mieux aujourd'hui ? (Are you feeling better today? — how are you doing → adverb)
• C'est une meilleure idée. (That's a better idea. — idea is what? → adjective, agrees → meilleure)

English speaker's trick: English uses "better" for both — "this wine is better" / "she sings better". French splits them. If you can rephrase as "a better X" (adjective + noun), use meilleur. If you can rephrase as "she does X better / in a better way" (verb + adverb), use mieux.

Wrong vs right:

• ❌ Elle chante meilleur. → ✅ Elle chante mieux.
• ❌ C'est un mieux livre. → ✅ C'est un meilleur livre.

Bonus: pire works for both adjective and adverb in modern French, but is mostly used as an adjective (c'est pire qu'avant — it's worse than before). For "he plays worse" the adverb is plus mal (il joue plus mal).

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Part 5: The superlative — "the most / the least"

le / la / les + plus / moins + adjective (+ de + group)

The article agrees with the noun. If the adjective normally comes after the noun (most adjectives), you get a double article — once on the noun, once before plus/moins:

Position	Example
Adjective after the noun (normal case)	C'est la fille la plus intelligente de la classe. (She's the smartest girl in the class.)
BAGS adjective before the noun	C'est le plus grand problème. (That's the biggest problem.)
With an adverb — always le, invariable	Elle court le plus vite. (She runs the fastest.)
mieux / meilleur	C'est le meilleur film. (It's the best film.) / Elle danse le mieux. (She dances best.)

"Out of all" = de (not dans, not parmi in the standard pattern):

• Paris est la plus belle ville du monde. (de + le → du — the most beautiful city in the world.)
• C'est le moins cher des restaurants. (de + les → des)

Note for English speakers: English uses "in the class / in the world" for superlatives. French uses de — literally "of the class / of the world". Don't translate "in" with dans here — dans la classe would mean physically inside the room.

Trap! With adverbs the le stays masculine singular no matter who you're talking about: Marie court le plus vite (Marie runs the fastest). The article doesn't agree with Marie — because vite is an adverb, not an adjective.

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Part 6: Adverbs of frequency and intensity

These aren't built by rule — learn them as a list:

French	English
toujours	always
souvent	often
parfois / quelquefois	sometimes
rarement	rarely
jamais (ne … jamais)	never
déjà	already
encore	still / again / yet
bientôt	soon
tôt	early
tard	late
très	very (with adj./adv.)
beaucoup	a lot, much (with verbs)
trop	too (much)
assez	enough, fairly
peu	little, not much
presque	almost
vraiment	really

très vs beaucoup — the classic English-speaker trap: English says "I like it very much" — one phrase. French splits the job.

• très + adjective/adverb: Ce film est très bon. / Elle parle très vite.
• beaucoup + verb: J'aime beaucoup ce film. / Je travaille beaucoup.

❌ J'aime très ce film. — impossible. Très never modifies a verb. ❌ Je suis beaucoup fatigué. — impossible. Beaucoup never modifies an adjective. (Use très fatigué.)

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