adverb modifies an adjective or another adverb, it is placed in front of the word it is modifying, for example: Je suis profondément ému. "I am deeply moved." There is a contrast between verb–adverbial order in French and adverbial–verb order in English. Adverbial expressions are formed in French, by combining prepositions with nouns (or noun phrases), adjectives (adjective + a noun), adverbs, or a series of words. While movement is slightly different from English, suffixation is similar. Most French words that end in -ment are adverbs, and the majority of the time their English equivalents end in -ly: généralement – "generally". In a brief overview on how adverbs are used in the overall phrase structure, in French there is an expansion in the word due to a derivation adjective adjective-to-adverb conversion process, namely, -ment suffixation. For example: ferme → fermement patient → patiemment Similarly, in English, words have the -ly suffixation added at the end of adverbs in adverbial phrases. For example: firm → firmly patient → patiently However, this process of adding suffixation at the end of the adverbial word in French, is not as productive as -ly suffixation in English, and some adjectives are incompatible with it. For example, the adverb 'interesting' would become ungrammatical if the -ment adverb suffixation were to be added in the word: intéressant → *intéressamment Additionally, French adverbials are derived from adjectives in a completely irregular fashion not even using the suffix -ment: bon → bien ("good" → "well") mauvais → mal ("bad" → "badly") meilleur → mieux ("better", adjective → "better", adverb) See also Adjective phrase Adverbial Adverb Adverbial complement References Grammar Syntactic categories