Adverbs of place and time

Here and there: ici, là, là-bas#

Ici means “here”, the place where the speaker is. Là means “there”; in everyday speech it is also used for the place where one is: Je suis là ! (“I’m here!”), Les enfants, vous êtes là ? (“Children, are you there?”). Là-bas means “over there”, farther away. Là is written with a grave accent; la without it is the article.

• Viens ici, s’il te plaît.Come here, please.
• Ton sac est là, sur la chaise.Your bag is there, on the chair.
• Tu vois la maison là-bas ?Can you see the house over there?

Adverbs of time and habits#

Maintenant (“now”), aujourd’hui (“today”), demain (“tomorrow”), hier (“yesterday”) and bientôt (“soon”) place an event in time. They are placed at the end of the sentence, or at the start, followed by a comma: Demain, je joue au tennis. With demain, the present often expresses a plan: Elle arrive demain.

A habit is expressed with the definite article and no preposition: le matin (“in the mornings”), le lundi (“on Mondays”), and with tous les + plural noun or chaque + singular noun: tous les jours (“every day”), chaque semaine. Frequency is expressed with toujours, souvent, parfois, and these adverbs are placed after the verb: Je mange souvent ici.

• Nous mangeons maintenant et nous partons après.We are eating now and leaving afterwards.
• Le dimanche, nous nous promenons.On Sundays we go for a walk.
• Elle prend un café tous les matins.She has a coffee every morning.
• Mes parents arrivent bientôt.My parents are arriving soon.

In short