Whether they come as words or as phrases, the function of French adverbs always remains to modify la signification (the meaning) of words, phrases, and sentences!
Take this example:
La passe faite par Lionel Messi à son coéquipier était merveilleusement jolie
(The pass made by Lionel Messi to his team-mate was marvelously beautiful)
Here the adverb merveilleusement is a word, and it serves to modify the adjective jolie.
In today’s post, we’ll go through some French adverbs which come as phrases, so that you can recognize them whenever you encounter them in a given sentence:
- Au fur et à mesure: As one goes along
- Au minimum: At least
- Au maximum: At the utmost
- À côté: Beside
- A fortioti: Even more so
- À peu près: Pretty much
- À part: Separately
- À plus forte raison: Even more so
- A priori: A priori (Latin)
- À temps: In time
- À tue-tête: At the top of one’s lungs
- Ça et là: Here and there
- Côte à côte: Side by side
- D’arrache-pied: Flat out (to work)
- De bonne heure: Early
- D’emblée: Straightaway, from the outset
- D’habitude: Usually
- D’ores et déjà: Already
- De suite: At once
- De temps en temps: From time to time
- En bas: Down, downstairs
- En haut: Up, upstairs
- En arrière: Towards the back
- En avant: Towards the front
- En amont: Upstream
- En aval: Downstream
- En avance: Early in time
- En dehors: Outside
- En catimini: Secretly
- En général: In general
- En particulier: In particular
- En vain: In vain
- En définitive: Finally
- Et ainsi de suite: And so on
- Grosso modo: More or less (Latin)
- In extremis: In extremis (Latin), at the last moment
- N’importe qui: Anyone
- N’importe comment: Anyhow
- N’importe quand: Anytime
- N’importe quoi: Anything
- Par ailleurs: In addition
- Par contre: On the other hand
- Petit à petit: Little by little
- Sans cesse: Ceaselessly
- Sur-le-champ: Immediately
- Tout à fait: Completely
- Tout à l’heure: Later
- Tout d’un coup: All of a sudden
- Tout de suite: At once, immediately
- Tout de go: Straight out
- Vaille que vaille: Somehow
- Vice versa: Vice versa (Latin)
