Adverbs of Frequency

This lesson is all about adverbs of frequency adverbs of frequency.

Answer the question how often they tell us how often or how frequently something happened.

And please don’t confuse adverbs of frequency with Adverbs of Time Adverbs of Time.

Answer the question when this is how often.

So please look at the Adverbs of Time.

Lesson for more details on that so the frequency can be definite daily weekly yearly etc.

can be indefinite.

Rarely sometimes.

Often and the position in a sentence varies as well.

And because adverbs of frequency often describe habits will see the present simple tense being used a lot in the examples.

There are some definite adverbs of frequency I eat breakfast every day and as in all these examples the adverbs are in italics to make them stand out easier we go to the cinema once a month they go on holiday twice a year I drink tea four times a day we go to a restaurant every other week.

And never deviates from her daily routine.

His salary is paid monthly and there’s no definite adverbs of frequency and there is some indefinite adverbs of frequency.

But even though they’re indefinite they can still be put in some sort of order although it’s subjective so if we look at this table and again you might want to pause the table to read the examples we’ve ordered them sort of from always which is like 100 percent of the time to never which is 0 percent and we’ve got usually frequently often normally sometimes and these aren’t all of them by the way.

There are a lot more adverbs of frequency than this table.

This is used to illustrate a point.

Now we can assign values of zero to never and 100 to always as a percentage but what percentage value would you give frequently 60 70.

It depends what you give will be different from what somebody else gives.

And here we see that the exact numbers are so subjective but most people would agree that the order is correct even though they wouldn’t give the same values to the adverbs as we said earlier.

The position in the sentence can vary for adverbs of frequency so it usually goes before the main verb she normally does well in exams.

I usually take the bus to work we occasionally eat Chinese food but with murder law help her verbs and the verb to be the adverb is placed between these verbs and the main verb so we are always happy to see you.

Bob would never laugh at work.

Bill doesn’t usually drink on a weekday though he can see the modal help of verb and to be the adverb next and then the main verb.

Now some adverbs of frequency go at the beginning of the sentence always wash your hands before the meal.

Sometimes I cycle to work occasionally.

We like to eat a really hot curry once a month.

We go to our favorite restaurant and some adverbs of frequency go at the end of the sentence.

I drink coffee every day Judy goes on holiday twice a year we go to our favorite restaurant once a month and I really am sorry but there is no hard and fast rule that explains where you put these adverbs.

You just have to see it and learn it and use it and practice it.

I’m sorry about that.

And to make it more interesting.

Some adverbs of frequency you’re actually flexible in their positioning.

Sometimes I cycle to work I sometimes cycle to work or even I cycle to work.

Sometimes but they’re not that flexible that you can say I cycle sometimes to work.

This isn’t an option that we can use.

So I put a big red line through it fear of force not bad again reading is will help you practice them.

You will find it easier with use and time and practice.