Position of adverbs with verbs in compound tenses

Posted by Aurélie Drouard

In: Level A2, Adjectives & Adverbs, Adverbe

Questions: 2

Look at these sentences:

Elle a bien mangé
She ate well

J'ai beaucoup aimé le spectacle. 
I really liked the show.

In compounds tenses (e.g. past involving 'avoir' or 'être' as auxiliary verbs), some adverbs are placed between the auxiliary verb and the past participle. 

These include: assez, bien, beaucoup, bientôt, déjà, encore, enfin, jamais, mal, mieux, moins, souvent, toujours, trop and vite.

BUT 

Certain adverbs of time and manner can both be AT THE END or be AT THE START of the sentence: 

e.g. hier, aujourd'hui, avant-hier, après, autrefois,... (and some adverbs ending in -ment for emphasis)

Il s'est retourné lentement.
He turned around slowly.

Lentement, il s'est retourné.
Slowly, he turned around.

Hier, nous sommes allés à Marseille.
Yesterday, we went to Marseille.

Nous sommes allés à Marseille hier.
We went to Marseille yesterday.

AND

Adverbs of place and certain adverbs of time usually FOLLOW the past participle: 

e.g. tard, tôt,... and some adverbs ending in -ment

Il est parti tard.
He left late.

Elle a compris facilement.
She understood easily.

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alison

Kwiziq community member

15 July 2017

1 reply

Think you have left the wors "always FOLLOW the past participle" in here by accident?

Just before last example

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Aurélie

Kwiziq language super star

17 July 2017

17/07/17

Bonjour Alison !

Yes indeed ! Thanks to your eagle eye, it's now been removed :)

Merci beaucoup et bonne journée !

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