Bonjour Beverley !
In French, adverbs tend to be quite flexible :)
We teach the main rule as this is always correct, but then you can sometimes have some "poetic licence", especially in short sentences.
In the case you mentioned, both placements are correct in French:
"Je parle couramment (le) français."
or
"Je parle (le) français couramment."
I hope that's helpful!
À bientôt!
So couramment goes in front of the noun?
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DianaKwiziq Q&A regular contributor
So couramment goes in front of the noun?
This question relates to:French lesson "Forming adverbs from adjectives ending in -ant and -ent"
Asked 4 years ago
Ron Kwiziq Q&A super contributor
Bonjour Diana,
«So couramment goes in front of the noun?» In a word, no. A general rule of thumb is this:
an adverb follows the verb. Position of most adverbs
Here's the take away from this lesson: Notice that in simple sentences, adverbs are placed right after the verb.
You will notice that this states in simple sentences, and of course like everything else in français, there are exceptions which is my reasoning for stating that it is a general rule of thumb.
BeverleyKwiziq Q&A regular contributor
For example He speaks French fluently. = Il parle francais couramment and He is fluent = Il parle couramment.
Beverley
DianaKwiziq Q&A regular contributor
HI again, I think there may be a similar example somewhere on your site, but I can't find it, so I took this from somewhere else. "Cette expression française qui date du dix-neuvième siècle est couramment utilisée de nos jours. " Couramment is before the verb, and the meaning changes.
Ron Kwiziq Q&A super contributor
Actually couramment is in the middle of the compound verb structure "est utilisée"
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