Très vs beaucoup
The short answer
Très goes with adjectives and adverbs: très content, très vite. Beaucoup goes with verbs and, with de, with nouns: je travaille beaucoup, beaucoup de temps. The exception is the avoir expressions, where a bare noun takes très: j’ai très faim.
At a glance
Très or Beaucoup?
| Compare | TrèsWith adjectives and adverbs. | BeaucoupWith verbs, and with de plus a noun. |
|---|---|---|
| With an adjective | très fatigué | Not used |
| With an adverb | très souvent, très bien | Not used |
| With a verb | Not used | Il travaille beaucoup. |
| With a noun | Not used | beaucoup de travail |
| Avoir expressions | j’ai très faim, très peur | Not used |
| With a comparative | Not used | beaucoup plus cher |
How to choose
Ask these, in order
- 1
Is the next word an adjective or an adverb?
Très.
C’est très intéressant.
That’s very interesting.
- 2
Are you modifying a verb?
Beaucoup, and it goes after the verb.
Elle voyage beaucoup pour son travail.
She travels a lot for work.
- 3
Is there a noun with a quantity?
Beaucoup de, with no article after de.
Il y a beaucoup de monde ce soir.
There are a lot of people tonight.
NBBeaucoup des exists but means “many of the”, referring to a known group.
- 4
Is it an avoir expression with a bare noun?
Très, despite the noun. J’ai très faim, très soif, très peur.
On a très froid ici.
We’re very cold in here.
Side by side
Each one, in full
When to use très
With adjectives and adverbs.
Très intensifies adjectives and adverbs, and nothing else: très grand, très rapidement, très bien. It sits directly in front of the word it modifies.
Its one apparent exception is the avoir expressions, where the noun after avoir behaves adjective-like: j’ai très faim, il a très peur. Beaucoup there would be wrong, and this is worth learning as a fixed pattern rather than reasoned about.
Le film était très long.
Adjective.
Elle parle très vite.
Adverb.
J’ai très mal au dos.
An avoir expression, so très.
When to use beaucoup
With verbs, and with de plus a noun.
Beaucoup modifies verbs and stands after them: il mange beaucoup, elle lit beaucoup. In a compound tense it goes between the auxiliary and the participle: j’ai beaucoup travaillé.
With a noun it takes de and the article disappears: beaucoup de temps, beaucoup d’amis. It also intensifies comparatives, where très cannot go: beaucoup plus cher, beaucoup mieux.
Nous avons beaucoup appris.
Between auxiliary and participle.
Il a beaucoup de patience.
Beaucoup de plus a bare noun.
C’est beaucoup mieux comme ça.
With a comparative, très is impossible here.
Mistakes to avoid
What learners actually get wrong
J’ai beaucoup faim.
J’ai très faim.
The avoir expressions take très even though a noun follows. Beaucoup would be the logical choice and is simply not what French says. This is a fixed pattern to memorise.
Je suis beaucoup fatigué.
Je suis très fatigué.
Fatigué is an adjective, so it takes très. Beaucoup cannot modify an adjective under any circumstances.
J’aime très le chocolat.
J’aime beaucoup le chocolat.
Aimer is a verb, so it takes beaucoup, placed after it. Très with a verb is one of the clearest markers of an English speaker translating “very much” word for word.
C’est très plus cher.
C’est beaucoup plus cher.
Comparatives take beaucoup, never très, exactly as English uses much better rather than very better. The two languages agree here, which makes the error avoidable.
Questions
Asked and answered
- What about trop?
- Trop means too much and follows the same distribution as beaucoup with verbs and nouns, il travaille trop, trop de bruit, but it also works with adjectives, where beaucoup cannot: c’est trop cher. So trop covers both slots, which is why learners over-use it.
- Can très and beaucoup appear together?
- No, they occupy the same slot and would be redundant. What you can say is beaucoup trop, meaning far too much, which stacks two quantifiers rather than two intensifiers.
- How do I say “very much”?
- Beaucoup on its own. Merci beaucoup, j’aime beaucoup ça. French does not build a two-word intensifier here, and très beaucoup is not a possible phrase in any register.