12. Chez Le Docteur

12.1 The Human Body 12.2 French Adverbs

12.1 The Human Body

Mme Legendre is not feeling well, so she goes to the doctor. Here’s their conversation: Mme: Docteur, je ne me sens pas bien, j’ai mal à la tête et à l’estomac! D: Ouvrez la bouche! Est-ce que vous avez mal à la gorge? Mme: Oui! J’ai aussi le nez bouché.

La tête

Head

Le bras

Arm

L’estomac (masc.)

Stomach

La dent

Tooth

La bouche

Mouth

Le pied

Foot

La gorge

Throat

La jambe

Leg

Le nez

Nose

Les cheveux (masc.)

L’oeil (masc.) Les yeux (plur.)

Eye(s)

La main

Hand

L’oreille (fem.)

Ear

Le doigt

Finger

Le genou Les genoux

Knee(s)

Le cou

Neck

Hair

12.2 French Adverbs

The doctor asks Mme Legendre more questions to try to determine what she has: Mme: Je suis très fatiguée en ce moment! D: Est-ce que vous dormez assez? Mme: Non, je dors mal et je me réveille souvent pendant la nuit.

General rules: (1) Adverbs are commonly used to modify an adjective, a verb or another adverb: Je suis très fatiguée (adj.) Je dors (verb) mal. (2) Adverbs are invariable.

(3) Adverbs follow specific placement rules: -If an adverb modifies a verb, it will be placed directly after the verb: Est-ce que vous dormez assez?

-If an adverb modifies an adjective, il will be placed right before the adjective: Je suis très fatiguée.

Below are some commonly used adverbs of frequency and manner: Parfois

Sometimes

Bien

Well

Souvent

Often

Mal

Poorly

Rarement

Rarely

Vite

Quickly

Toujours

Always

Très

Very

Jamais

Never

trop

Too much

Beaucoup

A lot

Examples: Il parle bien le français (‘He speaks French well’). Elle est très sympathique (‘She’s very nice’). Je vais souvent au cinéma (‘I often go to the movie theater’). Il travaille beaucoup (‘He works a lot’).

Many French adverbs end in ‘-ment’. A great deal of these adverbs are derived from adjectives. They are usually formed by adding ‘-ment’ to the feminine singular form of the adjective: Adjective (masculine)

Adjective (feminine)

Adverb

Lent (slow)

Lente

Lentement (slowly)

Doux (soft)

Douce

Doucement (softly)

Note the addition of an accent to form the following adverbs: Adjective (masculine)

Adjective (feminine)

Précis (precise)

Précise

Profond (deep)

Profonde

Énorme (enormous)

Énorme

Adverb Précisément (precisely) Profondément (deeply) Énormément (enormously)

However, ‘-ment’ is added to the masculine singular form of adjectives ending with a vowel: Adjective (masculine)

Adverb

Poli (polite)

Poliment (politely)

Vrai (true)

Vraiment (truly)

Absolu (absolute)

Absolument (absolutely)

Add ‘-emment’ to the stem of adjectives that end in ‘ent’. Add ‘-amment’ to the stem of adjectives that end in ‘ant’. The stem is what remains of the adjective once ‘-ent’ or ‘-ant’ has been removed.

Adjective (masculine singular)

Adverb

Récent (recent)

Récemment (recently)

Fréquent (frequent) Suffisant (sufficient)

Fréquemment (frequently) Suffisamment (sufficiently)

The two most common irregular adverbs are the ones that are derived from the adjectives bref (‘brief’) and gentil (‘nice’), as shown in the table below: Adjective (masculine)

Adverb

Bref (brief)

Brièvement (briefly)

Gentil (nice)

Gentiment (nicely)