Adverbs of frequency in English –

Select a game 👇 👇 👇

Adverbs of frequency in English 1

Adverbs of frequency in English 2

Adverbs of frequency in English 3

Adverbs of frequency in English 4

Adverbs of frequency in English 5

Adverbs of frequency in English 6

Adverbs of frequency in English 7

Adverbs of frequency in English 8

Adverbs of frequency in English 9

Adverbs of frequency are used to determine the frequency with which a situation or circumstance occurs. For this reason, the verb tense in which they are most used is in the so-called timeless present (it does not happen at the moment of speaking, but rather occurs with a certain regularity), but they are used in other times as well.

In this text, we are going to learn about these adverbs in English, their translations into Spanish, their uses and the grammatical rules around them so that, when you finish reading and practicing with them, you will be able to use them with ease in different communicative contexts. or academics.

What are the most used adverbs of frequency in English?

Adverbs of frequency are used and studied from an early age since they are important when explaining the regularity of an event.

In descending order of frequency (from most to least) they are as follows:

In addition, two other adverbs are usually used that may have their equivalence with habitually:

In this way, if you want to indicate, for example, that you eat fruit every day, you will use always (always) and if you have not had the opportunity to try the handle, for example, you will use never (never).

If we were to make a representation with percentages, something very common when learning adverbs of frequency, the percentage scale would be the following:

This representation can be very useful when choosing the adverb to use on each occasion.

Where are adverbs of frequency placed in English sentences?

In Spanish, when writing a sentence we have more flexibility when it comes to organizing the syntactic structure it will have. However, in English, the structures are more stable and, in the case of adverbs of frequency, their location depends on the verb they are accompanying:

with the verb to be:

The adverb is always placed after the verb. Examples:

ENGLISH: I am always nice to see you.

SPANISH: I’m always happy to see you.

ENGLISH: I am usually tired.

SPANISH: I am usually tired.

With auxiliary and modal verbs:

The adverb is placed after these verbs. This is, for example, the verb to have when it works as a verb to have to make compound forms of verbs and other verbs like dog (can), must (duty)… Examples:

ENGLISH: I have often seen John in the library.

SPANISH: I have seen Juan in the library often.

ENGLISH: I can rarely watch TV while I am having breakfast.

SPANISH: I rarely (almost never) can watch TV while eating breakfast.

With the rest of the verbs:

In the rest of the cases, the adverb of frequency is placed before the verb. Examples:

ENGLISH: I frequently swim in Sara’s swimming pool.

SPANISH: I frequently swim in Sara’s pool.

ENGLISH: I hardly ever drink apple juice.

SPANISH: I almost never drink apple juice.

EXCEPTION TO THE ABOVE RULES:

There is an exception to these rules that is related to the emphasis you want to place on the frequency in which a fact occurs. In the case in which you want to highlight it especially, the adverb is placed at the beginning of the sentence.

This exception is usually used, above all, with adverbs of medium duration such as Sometimes, often, usually…

Some examples would be the following:

ENGLISH: I sometimes eat chocolate.

ENGLISH: Sometimes I eat chocolate. (emphasizing)

Both are correct and mean the same:

SPANISH: Sometimes I eat chocolate.

The difference is that the second highlights that it is only sometimes, not always or never.

ENGLISH: I occasionally go alone to the cinema. I normally go with my boyfriend.

ENGLISH: Occasionally I go alone to the cinema. Normally I go with my boyfriend.

Both sentences are also correct and mean:

SPANISH: From time to time (occasionally) I go to the movies alone. Normally, I go with my boyfriend.

The difference is that the person making these statements wants to emphasize that they are more likely to go to the movies accompanied.

OTHER FREQUENCY EXPRESSIONS WITHOUT SPECIFYING THEIR DURATION:

The following expressions can be translated into Spanish as “from time to time” and are placed at the beginning of sentences:

What other frequency expressions exist in English?

There are adverbs and expressions that, in contrast to the adverbs explained above, do indicate the duration in time of the action being discussed. In this case they are usually placed at the end of the sentence.

Among them are those that we will see in the following tables ordered from highest to lowest frequency:

Of a single word and ending with the suffix -ly:

They are usually placed towards the end of the sentence as we will see in the examples:

ENGLISH: You call me weekly.

SPANISH: You call me weekly.

ENGLISH: This magazine is published monthly.

SPANISH: That magazine is published monthly.

For the number of times something is done:

Generally, they are accompanied by a measure of time (day, week, month, year…). Examples:

ENGLISH: You play tennis twice a week.

SPANISH: You play tennis twice a week.

ENGLISH: You visit us once a month.

SPANISH: You visit us once a month.

To indicate that something is done every day, every week…:

To express this the word “every» which can be translated as «all and each one». Examples:

ENGLISH: You do your homework every day.

SPANISH: You do your homework every day.

ENGLISH: You go to the cinema every month.

SPANISH: You go to the movies every month.

How do you ask about frequency in English?

To ask someone how often they do something, use an interrogative pronoun and one of the adverbs that we saw at the beginning of the text:

The rest of the sentence must follow the general rules for interrogative sentences:

*Except the verb to bethe verb to have (when it acts as a verb haber in the compound forms of the verbs) and the modal verbs. In these cases, the verbs are placed before the subjects (in the position of auxiliaries). Examples:

SPANISH: How often do you go to the supermarket?
ENGLISH: How often do you go to the supermarket?

SPANISH: How often can you travel abroad?
ENGLISH: How often can you travel abroad?

Finally, we offer a downloadable note where you will find the most important content of the text that can help you on many occasions.