148 - 10 Adverbs of Manner in French

In this episode, you'll learn 10 common French adverbs of manner to help you express how actions are performed, e.g., 'Elle parle doucement' (She speaks softly) 🗣️

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Transcript

Hello everyone! Welcome back to the French Made Easy podcast! This is episode number 148, numéro 148.

In this episode, we are talking about adverbs of manner. Now, I’ve got an episode already on adverbs, where I explain what they are. It’s episode 141. So please listen to episode 141 first if you don’t know what adverbs are.

Now, as usual, before we start our lesson, if you're new to the podcast, welcome! Make sure you have your lesson's cheat sheet in front of you, so you can listen to the words and see how they are written. And when you finish this lesson, you can head over to the French Made Easy Exercise Library to download your lesson's exercises and practice what you've learned today. You'll find all the download links in the episode notes on your podcast platform.

To give you a very brief recap, adverbs are words that modify verbs, adjectives, other adverbs, or entire sentences. They  give more information about how, when, where, and to what extent actions take place.

And just to remind you, there are different types of adverbs:

• Adverbs of manner,
• Adverbs of time,
• Adverbs of frequency (which technically also fits inside the “adverbs of time category”, but for teaching purposes, I find it easier to separate them.) And you can learn more about adverbs of frequency in episode 141.
• Adverbs of place,
• Adverbs of intensity/quantity

Today, we’ll focus specifically on adverbs of manner, which describe how actions are performed. For example: Antoine parle doucement. (Antoine speaks softly.) Here, the adverb doucement adds more information about the verb. It tells us how Antoine speaks. Does he speak loudly? No, he speaks softly.

Now, let’s go through the 10 most common adverbs of manner in French:

• Lentement (slowly) - Elle mange lentement pour savourer son repas. (She eats slowly to enjoy her meal.)
• Rapidement (quickly) - Il parle rapidement. (He speaks quickly.)
• Facilement (easily) - Ils apprennent le français facilement. (They learn French easily.)
• Tranquillement (quietly) - Les enfants jouent tranquillement dans leur chambre. (The children are playing quietly in their room.)
• Heureusement (fortunately) - Heureusement, on a pris un parapluie avec nous. (Fortunately, we took an umbrella with us.)
• Malheureusement (unfortunately) - Malheureusement, notre train est en retard. (Unfortunately, our train is late.)
• Sérieusement (seriously) - Elle étudie sérieusement pour son examen. (She studies seriously for her exam.)
• Doucement (gently) - Il ferme la porte doucement pour ne pas faire de bruit. (He closes the door gently so as not to make noise.)
• Exactement (exactly) - Nous savons exactement où aller. (We know exactly where to go.)
• Vraiment (really) - Ce gâteau est vraiment délicieux! (This cake is really delicious!)

Alright, let’s do a quick recap of all of these adverbs:

• Lentement (slowly)
• Rapidement (quickly)
• Facilement (easily)
• Tranquillement (quietly)
• Heureusement (fortunately)
• Malheureusement (unfortunately)
• Sérieusement (seriously)
• Doucement (gently)
• Exactement (exactly)
• Vraiment (really)

Et voilà, that’s the end of today’s episode! I hope you enjoyed it. Now, go and practice those adverbs inside the French Made Easy Exercise Library! It’s free, and the links are in the episode notes, on your podcast platform. À la semaine prochaine! Chat with you next week.