Level: beginner
The commonest adverbials of frequency are:
| always | never | normally |
| rarely | seldom | sometimes |
| occasionally | often | usually |
We usually put these one-word adverbials of frequency in front of the main verb:
We often spend Christmas with friends.
I have never enjoyed myself so much.
but they usually come after the verb be:
He was always tired in the evening.
We are never late for work.
Sometimes these adverbials have an intensifier or mitigator:
He is very rarely late for work.
We nearly always spend Christmas with friends.
We use the adverbial a lot to mean often or frequently. It comes at the end of the clause:
We go to the cinema a lot.
We can also use a lot with another time adverbial:
We go to the cinema a lot at the weekend.
We use much/a lot with a negative to mean not often:
We don't go out much/a lot. (= We don't go out often.)
- How often 1
We often use phrases with every as adverbials of frequency. We use every with words like minute, hour, day, week, month and year:
There is a big celebration every year.
We have a meeting twice every week.
I usually go home once every two months.
There is a leap year every four years.
We also use every with days of the week and months of the year:
We have a meeting every Monday.
We go on holiday every August.
We use the phrase every other:
We will email you every other day. (= on alternate days)
We go to see my mother every other week. (= in alternate weeks)
We use phrases with once, twice, three times, four times, etc. and a period of time:
I go swimming twice a week.
I see my old school friends four or five times a year.
- How often 2
We use how often and ever to ask questions about frequency. how often comes at the beginning of the clause:
How often do you go to the cinema?
How often have you been here?
ever comes before the main verb:
Do you ever go to the cinema at the weekend?
Have you ever been there?
Hi,
I have 2 questions,
1, Can we use 'once' to answer 'How many time do you go swimming in a week?'
or we can only use 'one time' to answer?
2, How often = How many times... in a (time)?
Looking forward to your respond
Thanks a lot!
Hello Mira-Mira,
1. Yes, 'once' is absolutely fine here. In fact, one time sounds very odd in this context.
2. Yes, that's right. It's a question about frequency so you can answer with a number or with an adverb:
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
It's really nice of you to reply me. It helps a lot!
I want to make sure, a conversation as following,
-How many times do you go swimming in a week?
-Once.
This is okay？
Hello Mira-Mira,
Yes, as Peter mentioned, that is correct and very commonly used. Well done!
Best wishes,
Kirk
LearnEnglish team
Thank you Kirk. Thank you Peter. You're brilliant!
Hi, Are sometimes and often allowed at the end of a sentence?
Hi Ximetalamo,
Yes, they are, especially if you wish to emphasise them more!
Jonathan
LearnEnglish team
Hello!
Could you please explain more elaborate about the position of the frequency adverbs in negative sentences.
I found Oxford University Press PDF file (the file is clickable) and it says that
I also found that
Hello AlexKat_,
Regarding your first question, although the position of adverbs of frequency is less flexible than the position of many other types of adverbs, there is still some variation in where they're placed. This makes it difficult to describe how they are used, especially in a way that students can remember and not get confused by!
The PDF looks correct to me, though you've done a good job in spotting the fact that 'often' behaves more like 'always', which is not mentioned there. In general, I'd say 'We don't always/often go to bed late', but put most other adverbs of frequency before 'don't'.
As for your second question, yes, both forms of the sentences are commonly used. In other words, we say both 'We don't often go to bed late' and 'We rarely go to bed late', and the same is true for the other examples.
All the best,
Kirk
LearnEnglish team
Please kindly clarify:
1. two times/ week uses sometimes?
2. three times/week usues often?
3, four or more times/ week uses usually?
4. usually is a habit?
5. What are other differences betwen often, usually and sometimes?
Many Thanks!
Hello lovetolearn,
'sometimes' refers to less frequency than 'often', and 'often' refers to less than 'usually', but I'm afraid there's no definite correlation between numbers and these adverbials. Imagine a man and a woman say they sometimes drink wine. It could be that the man drinks it once a week and the woman drinks it four times a week, but both use the same word to describe how often they do it.
I wouldn't say that 'usually' always refers to a habit, though it definitely can do so. For example, 'We usually have doughnuts for breakfast on Sundays' refers to a habit, but I wouldn't say that a sentence like 'When we fly, we usually get window seats' refers to a habit, especially if the speaker only flies once every year or two.
Does that help you make sense of it?
All the best,
Kirk
LearnEnglish team
Hello!
Could you please help me with the items I've struggled to find on my own, such as
1. Is it possible to say:
I not often see you.
She not always does her exercises.
or don't/doesn't are preffered?
2. Does it sound correct:
It's rare when we go there.
Thank you very much for your immense help (I do apprecite it, and do not write "thank you" after being answered not to take your time and time of administrator) and I am grateful for answer to this post beforehand!!!
Hello howtosay_,
1. The auxiliary verbs are required for the negative form here, so you should say: I don't often see you and She doesn't always do her exercises.
2. If you are talking about how often you go to the place then you need to change the sentence. The correct construction here is: It's rare for us to go there or We rarely go there.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello there,
some English teaching websites are giving tests which includes questions below and they ask you to ask questions for the bold part of the sentence. Here are some examples;
"You have heard the song 100 times" (100 times in bold) and then they give the correct answer to be as "How often have you heard the song?
or
"Clara has repeated the sentence five times." (five times in bold) and then they give the correct answer to be as"How often has Clara repeated the sentence?"
As there's no time frame for these occurrences say "100 times a day" or "five times an hour" shouldn't it be How many times" instead of "How often" in these examples?
Thank you in advance.
Kadir
Hi Kadir,
Yes, we agree with you :)
Jonathan
LearnEnglish team
For: She’s always loved that band. I need to create a question which answer is: always.
Is it correct to say: How long has she love that band? Can I also say: How often has deje loved that band?
Thanks in advance, Rafa
Hello rafa_0702_
Yes, I suppose a question with 'how long' is best here.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hey
I want to know if this question is correct by using "usually" in it
"How often do they usually eat?"
The answer is: I usually eat 3 times per day.
Hello DaBour V,
I wouldn't say it's incorrect, but I wouldn't recommend it because it's redundant. 'how often' already includes the idea of frequency and so it's odd to include another word referring to frequency (such as 'usually').
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello sir,
Could you help me understand how often “have you ”.
What’s the difference between how often do you and how often have you?
Does these two sentences mean the same ?
> How often have you come here?
> How often do you come here?
And does these two sentences mean the same?
> How often have you gone to the film last year?
> How often did you go to the film last year?
I look forward to your answers
Brian
Hi Brianchen55688,
No, the first pair of questions mean different things. In the first one ("have you" - present perfect), the time is "until now" or "recently". So, it's asking about the person's actions in that particular time period. The second question is more general. The present simple describes general facts - these are understood as unchanging, no matter whether in the past, present or future. So, it assumes that the person has a general behaviour ("coming here") that is true at all times. It seems like it's asking about a place that the person goes to regularly (school or work, for example), including the idea that they may continue to go there in the future. In comparison, the first question seems like it's asking about a place that the person comes to occasionally, not regularly (a tourist on holiday or a visitor somewhere, for example).
In the second pair of questions, the present perfect is not normally used together with named points in time ("last year"), so only the second question is correct.
I hope that helps to understand it!
Jonathan
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello sir,
Can we consider every time is an adverbial of time ?Strangely you don’t mention it .
Hi g-ssan,
Yes, we can! It may need a bit more detail to complete the idea, e.g. "There is a big celebration every time my brother comes home", or "We have a meeting every time the general manager visits our office."
Jonathan
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello sir ,
Another question please .
In first practice the intensifier came after adverbial of time sometime in this sentence as young boy ,my father was sometime extremely ill . I ask is that normal ?
thank you teacher for your patient and humility .
Hi g-ssan,
Yes, that's right, because "extremely" describes "ill" (not "sometimes"), so it is positioned just before "ill".
It's also possible to say "... was extremely ill sometimes".
Jonathan
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello sir ,
can i know is there a huge difference if we said ?
At the weekend
In the weekend
on the weekend .
Hi g-ssan,
"At" and "on" are both correct, if you are talking about the weekend coming up or weekends in general. "At" is generally used in British English and "on" is generally used in American English.
"In" is less commonly used, unless you are talking about a specific weekend in the past, e.g. "The weather was great in the weekend before the new year."
I hope that helps.
Jonathan
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi
Is it incorrect to use "in" in the following examples?
"I see my old school friends four or five times (in) a year"
Hi Faii,
No, grammatically it's fine! But it's a bit less commonly used to express frequency.
Jonathan
The LearnEnglish Team