{"id":21634,"date":"2015-02-04T18:35:55","date_gmt":"2015-02-04T17:35:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=21634"},"modified":"2017-10-23T14:19:02","modified_gmt":"2017-10-23T12:19:02","slug":"french-adverbs-and-their-minds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/french-adverbs-and-their-minds\/","title":{"rendered":"French Adverbs And Their Minds"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a cool trick to forming adverbes<\/strong> that lies in the history of la langue fran\u00e7aise<\/strong>. This trick doesn\u2019t apply to all adverbes<\/strong>, only those that end in \u2013ment<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Franchement<\/strong>
\nJoyeusement<\/strong>
\nSeulement<\/strong>
\nArtificiellement<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to see how these adverbes<\/strong> are formed with some root and then add \u2013ment<\/strong> to them. What\u2019s less obvious is why you have to say franchement<\/em> and not francment<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The answer lies in the etymology of the word, going all the way back to Latin. Au d\u00e9but<\/strong> (at first), these words weren\u2019t adverbes<\/strong>, but une combinaison<\/strong> (a combination) of un nom<\/strong> (a noun) and un adjectif<\/strong> (an adjective). You just have to get into the right state of mind to understand it!<\/p>\n

The suffix \u2013ment<\/em> vient du mot latin<\/strong> (comes from the Latin word) MENS, meaning mind or spirit, and can still be seen in words like mentalit\u00e9<\/strong> (mentality), mental<\/strong>, mentor<\/strong>, etc. The entire history from MENS to \u2013ment<\/em> is a bit more complicated, but for now just keep MENS in mind.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s important for our adverbe<\/strong> story is that in Latin, MENS is a feminine noun. It was used to create something that resembles an adverbe<\/strong>, with the construction adjective <\/em>MENS meaning dans l\u2019esprit d\u2019adjectif<\/em><\/strong> (in the spirit of adjective<\/em>).<\/p>\n

La question est donc<\/strong> (The question is then), if this all comes from Latin, why is the adjective feminine in Latin? The answer is simply that Latin had gendered nouns like French does and MENS, being a feminine noun, needed a feminine adjective to go along with it. La m\u00eame chose<\/strong> (the same thing) continues in modern French with its mental adverbes.<\/p>\n

And voil\u00e0<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

Franc \u2013 Franche \u2013 Franchement
\nJoyeux \u2013 Joyeuse \u2013 Joyeusement
\nSeul \u2013 Seule \u2013 Seulement
\nArtificiel \u2013 Artificielle \u2013 Artificiellement<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

There\u2019s a cool trick to forming adverbes that lies in the history of la langue fran\u00e7aise. This trick doesn\u2019t apply to all adverbes, only those that end in \u2013ment. Franchement Joyeusement Seulement Artificiellement It\u2019s easy to see how these adverbes are formed with some root and then add \u2013ment to them. What\u2019s less obvious is…<\/p>\n

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