French Language Asked on February 2, 2021
AFAIK the adverbs "rien", "tout", "beaucoup" and "peu" usually come after the verb in simple verb tenses and between the auxiliary verb and the verb in participle in composite verb tenses. Examples:
However, I found the sentence "Ma nouvelle voiture va consommer peu" in https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/17001631. That is the same translation I got using Deep Translator. Is that sentence usual? Would it be grammatically incorrect or less usual if "peu" came before the auxiliary verb and the main verb in this example?
It is possible to place this adverb before the infinitive verb in verbal forms made up of two verbs; here are examples of recent use.
(1982) Son appareil, un monoplucc. doit peu consommer, et la quantité de carburant qu'il emporte et qui serait de 200) litres, pourrait suffire à la durée du vol.
(1972) Dès lors il ne faut pas s ' étonner de voir cet habitant ne se nourrir que de galettes d ' orge et de lait caillé , ne pas ou peu consommer de
(2001) c ' est se faire détester par les grandes pétrolières tellement la voiture est censée peu consommer ;
(1993) Mais la majorité des pays et des entreprises du monde doivent produire , investir toujours plus mais peu consommer.
However, here are some of the usages.
doit peu manger/doit manger peu ("doit manger peu" is first.)
faut peu manger/faut manger peu ("Faut manger peu" is first)
fait peu sentir/fait sentir peu ("Fait sentir peu" is becoming first.)
faut beaucoup apprendre/faut apprendre beaucoup("Faut apprendre beaucoup" is first.)
fait peu parler de/fait parler peu de
fera peu attendre/fera attendre peu
It follows that there is no hard and fast rule.
When the adverb is followed by a complement, then it is invariably found after, but then its grammatical status is not clearly that of an adverb (TLFi).
réf. 1 ... faut quitter (« il faut savoir peu de tout »).
As a conclusion let's look at the usage for "faut beaucoup apprendre/faut apprendre beaucoup" (ref.); it is clear that you can say "il faut apprendre beaucoup". In the light of the fact that the adverbs of the pair "peu/beaucoup" of opposite adverbs are expected to commute nobody should be blamed for saying "il faut apprendre peu"; such irrational usage/prescription that would forbid this possibility would be so capricious as to be intolerable. I think, therefore that you can say "Ma nouvelle voiture va consommer peu.".
However, in no case can the adverb come before the first verbal form (what you call "auxiliary verb").
Answered by LPH on February 2, 2021
It would be incorrect to put the adverb before both the auxiliary and the main verb in this example ("Ma nouvelle voiture peu va consommer").
For some adverbs (mostly time, place, speed), it is indeed more common to put them after the main verb.
However, for quantity adverbs, the recommendation is to always put the adverb between the auxiliary and the main verb:
Ma nouvelle voiture va peu consommer.
Note that this rule is relevant for all "temps composés" (futur proche (your example), passé composé, plus-que-parfait, passé antérieur...).
More information here and there.
I couldn't find if it is still grammatically correct to put the adverb after the main verb as in your example, as it goes against the recommendations, but it feels a bit less natural. It might be useful to use this phrasing if you want to put an emphasis on the quantity itself.
Answered by Reyedy on February 2, 2021
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