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 Stomach La dent Tooth (masc.) La bouche Mouth Le pied Foot La gorge Throat La jambe Leg
Les cheveux Le nez Nose Hair (masc.) L’oeil (masc.) Eye(s) La main Hand Les yeux (plur.) L’oreille Ear Le doigt Finger (fem.) Le genou Knee(s) Le cou Neck Les genoux
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 Adjective Adverb (masculine) (feminine) Lent ( slow ) Lente Lentement ( slowly ) Doux ( soft ) Douce Doucement ( softly )
Note the addition of an accent to form the following adverbs: Adjective Adjective Adverb (masculine) (feminine) Précisément Précis ( precise ) Précise ( precisely ) Profondément Profond ( deep ) Profonde ( deeply ) Énorme Énormément Énorme ( enormous ) ( enormously )
However, ‘- ment ’ is added to the masculine singular form of adjectives ending with a vowel: Adjective Adverb (masculine) Poli ( polite ) Poliment ( politely ) Vrai ( true ) Vraiment ( truly ) Absolument Absolu ( absolute ) ( 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 Adverb (masculine singular) Récent ( recent ) Récemment ( recently ) Fréquemment Fréquent (frequent) ( frequently ) Suffisamment Suffisant ( sufficient ) ( 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 Adverb (masculine) Bref ( brief ) Brièvement ( briefly ) Gentil ( nice ) Gentiment ( nicely )
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