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Position of Adverbs

FoundationHigherAQA

Practise Position of Adverbs for GCSE French with this free worksheet and full mark scheme — Foundation and Higher exam-style practice with worked answers for AQA GCSE French (8652). Adverbs of time, manner, frequency and place each have their usual position in a sentence.

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These worksheets and mark schemes are original, written for Virtus Academy and checked against the current AQA specification. Every worksheet comes with a full mark scheme.

Foundation

WorksheetFoundation · PDFMark SchemeFoundation · PDF

Higher

WorksheetHigher · PDFMark SchemeHigher · PDF

Topic overview

Adverbs normally go immediately after the verb they describe, which differs from English word order.

Je parle souvent français means I often speak French. English places often before the verb; French places souvent after it. Writing je souvent parle is wrong.

In the perfect tense, short common adverbs go between the auxiliary and the past participle: j'ai souvent mangé, j'ai bien dormi, j'ai déjà vu. Longer adverbs and those of time or place go after the participle: j'ai mangé lentement, je suis allé hier. The short-adverb rule covers souvent, bien, mal, déjà, encore, toujours and beaucoup.

Revision notes

With a simple tense

The adverb goes immediately after the verb.

Je parle souvent français. Il mange lentement. English puts many adverbs before the verb, so the order must be consciously changed.

In the perfect tense

Short common adverbs go between the auxiliary and the participle.

J'ai souvent mangé. J'ai bien dormi. J'ai déjà vu. This group includes souvent, bien, mal, déjà, encore, toujours and beaucoup.

Longer adverbs

Longer adverbs and those of time or place go after the participle.

J'ai mangé lentement. Je suis allé hier. Adverbs ending in -ment are usually long enough to follow this pattern rather than the short-adverb one.

Key points

  • Adverbs go after the verb they describe.
  • This differs from English word order.
  • Je parle souvent, not je souvent parle.
  • Short adverbs go inside the perfect tense.
  • They sit between auxiliary and participle.
  • Longer adverbs follow the participle.

Worked examples

Example 1

Place the adverb correctly: Je parle français, souvent. [2 marks]

Working

Je parle souvent françaisplace the adverb after the verb
French places the adverb after the verb, unlike Englishexplain the word order

Example 2

Place the adverb correctly in the perfect: J'ai mangé, souvent. [2 marks]

Working

J'ai souvent mangéplace the short adverb between auxiliary and participle
Souvent is a short common adverb, so it goes inside the verbexplain the rule

Example 3

Place the adverb correctly: J'ai mangé, lentement. [2 marks]

Working

J'ai mangé lentementplace the longer adverb after the participle
Adverbs ending in -ment usually follow the past participleexplain the pattern

Common mistakes

  • Placing the adverb before the verb.

    French places it after.

  • Putting short adverbs after the participle.

    J'ai souvent mangé, not j'ai mangé souvent.

  • Putting long adverbs inside the verb.

    J'ai mangé lentement, not j'ai lentement mangé.

  • Separating the auxiliary and participle wrongly.

    Only short adverbs go between them.

Exam tips

  • Place adverbs after the verb in simple tenses.
  • Put short adverbs inside the perfect tense.
  • Put -ment adverbs after the participle.
  • Learn the short-adverb list.

Key terms

Adverb position
Where an adverb sits relative to the verb.
Short adverb
One such as bien or souvent, going inside the perfect.
Auxiliary
The helper verb, which short adverbs follow.
Past participle
The form that long adverbs follow.

Related topics

Written and reviewed against the current AQA specification. Spotted an error? Let us know.