Adverbs of Frequency English Grammar Speak Clearly Confidently
Hello I’m Emma from mmmEnglish! There are
many times in an English conversation
when you need to say how often you do
something. For example, if you were asked
the question, “How often do you travel
abroad?” “Do you often eat out at a
restaurant?”
“How often do you visit your mother?”
Adverbs of frequency help you to explain how many times you do an activity
or how often something happens.
Adverbs give more information about the
action in a sentence.
So, are you ready for some examples of these adverbs?
Always - when the action happens all the time.
Frequently, normally, usually, often, regularly
- when the action happens many times.
Generally - when the action happens more
often than not. Occasionally or sometimes
- when the action happens less often, not
that often.
Rarely, seldom, hardly ever, infrequently -
that’s when the action happens only a
few times. Or never, when the action
doesn’t happen at all.
Now, usually these adverbs are used in
the present tense and adverbs can go in
a few different places in an English
sentence but most commonly they go in
the middle of the sentence, between the
subject and the verb.
“They often take their dog to the beach.”
“We sometimes pick up dinner on the way home.”
“I usually visit my grandparents on
Thursdays.” But you can also use them at
the beginning of your sentence or at the
end. “They take their dogs to the beach often.”
“Sometimes we pick up dinner on the
way home.” And “Usually, I visit my
grandparents on Thursdays.” But we never
put the adverb after the verb.
That just doesn’t work! “We pick up dinner sometimes
on the way home.” Incorrect!
In addition to these adverbs, there are a number of
other English expressions that can help
you to say how often something happens.
You can use this expression “once or
twice a..” with another time expression
like day or week or year.
You can say “once in a while” and these expressions
are similar to the adverb ‘infrequently’.
Now you can also say “from time to time”
or “every now and again” and these ones
are similar to saying occasionally or
sometimes. You can also say “most of the
time”. This is similar to saying ‘often’. Now
all of these expressions are used at the
start or the end of a sentence but not
in the middle. There are also a few ways
that you can explain that something that
you do happens at the same time each
week. “I take an English class every
Wednesday” or “I take an English class on
Wednesdays.” The two sentences mean exactly
the same thing but the name of the day
is plural and that tells the listener
that it happens every week. It’s a
regular event. Using adverbs of frequency
are especially helpful when you’re
describing your daily or your weekly
routine. So to explain, let me tell you
about a typical day in my life.
I regularly wake up at 6:00 a.m. It’s
early, I know, but I like to get a head
start on everyone else. Occasionally,
I’ll meditate or do yoga, but I don’t do this
as often as I would like to. I usually
work for a few hours before I have
breakfast. Normally, I make an omelette or
some eggs but sometimes I just have
fruit and yoghurt. I always have a strong
cup of coffee before I start working.
Generally, I go out for a run at around
11:00 a.m. and I use this exercise to break
up my day. Every now and again, I go to
the beach for a swim before I come home
and I have a quick shower and a light
lunch before getting back to work at
about 1:00 p.m. Even though I enjoy
cooking, I rarely eat dinner at home. By
this time of the day I’m sick of being
stuck in the house and I want to go and
meet some friends or eat dinner out.
So I finish working at about 7:00 p.m and
get ready. I never drive because it’s too
hard to find a park. Plus, I don’t live
that far from the city. Most of the time,
I meet some friends at a cheap Thai
restaurant or local pub. But, once or
twice a week I splurge and I go
somewhere special! I try to be in bed by
11:00 p.m but that hardly ever happens. So,
you can see that there are lots of
different ways of expressing yourself
and expressing how often something
happens in English. Learning to use these
adverbs will help you to express
yourself more clearly when you’re
speaking. So, think about your daily
routine and see if you can use any of
these adverbs and expressions to
describe what you do! Well, that’s it for this
lesson!
Remember, that these expressions are
mostly used in the present tense.
Other adverbs are used with the present
continuous and the present
perfect tenses but that lesson is for another
day. We’re working on the present right now!
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Bye for now!