Adverbs of frequency in detail

In this post, we learn what adverbs of frequency are, and how to use them in a sentence.

What are adverbs of frequency?

Definition: Adverbs of frequency modify a verb by indicating ‘how often’ or ‘how frequently’ the action takes place. To find the adverbs of frequency in a sentence (if there is any), ask how often the action (verb) takes place.

Some common adverbs of frequency: always, often, sometimes, never, daily, weekly, monthly, etc.

Examples:

• She never listens to me.
• Jon often comes here with his friends to play football.
• He does not reply to my texts sometimes.
• All of us are getting paid weekly.
• His parents send him money monthly.

Notice that in the above examples, the first three adverbs of frequency indicate an unspecific or indefinite frequency and the last two indicate a definite frequency.

Types of adverbs of frequency

Adverbs of frequency can be divided into the following two categories:

1. Indefinite frequency of adverbs
2. Definite frequency of adverbs

A list of adverbs of Indefinite frequency

• Always
• Usually
• Generally/normally
• Frequently/often
• Sometimes
• Occasionally
• Rarely
• Seldom
• Hardly ever
• Never

Examples:

• He always makes the same mistakes.
• We usually don’t borrow money from people that we don’t know very well.
• We generally go to see movies on Sundays.
• Riya frequently plays the guitar.
• Do you often throw such parties?
• My father occasionally watches TV.
• I know she is cute and likes me, but I won’t message her first. I rarely do that.
• Arpit, a cabin crew in Qatar Airways, seldom calls me and checks on me.
• We hardly ever go shopping.
• You never give me the respect I deserve.

A list of adverbs of definite frequency

• Hourly
• Weekly
• Monthly
• Yearly
• Quarterly
• Fortnightly
• Twice a week
• Once every 30 minutes
• Thrice a year

Examples:

• Most English teachers around the world are paid hourly.
• We will come to see you weekly.
• They meet monthly and help one another get close to their dreams.
• The IPL (Indian Premium League) takes place annually.
• The payments need to be made fortnightly.
• The live classes will be arranged thrice a week.
• The nurse will check your oxygen level once every 30 minutes.
• He takes writing tests thrice a year.

A list of all adverbs of frequency (with placements and examples)

Adverbs of frequency	Placements in a sentence	Examples
Always	After the subject	• He always gives his best when the team needs him.
Usually	After the subject	• Sonali usually sits alone in the class.
Frequently/often	After the subject	• Do you often come here?
Sometimes	1. After the subject (common) 2. Beginning of the sentence, 3. At the end	• Sometimes I don’t like your attitude. • I sometimes don’t feel like doing anything. • You give the best ideas sometimes.
Occasionally	1. After the subject (common) 2. Beginning of the sentence, 3. At the end	• We all occasionally go skiing. • Occasionally, you should spend some time with yourself. • I do go live on YouTube, but I do it occasionally.
Rarely	1. After the subject (common) 2. At the beginning (rare)	• Rarely do we get any time to play cricket. • I rarely go out without my phone.
Seldom	1. After the subject (common) 2. At the beginning (rare)	• She seldom sits with anyone in the class. • Seldom do I watch English movies.
Hardly ever	1. After the subject (common) 2. At the beginning (rare)	• We hardly ever went on a picnic in my childhood. • Hardly ever did she speak in the class.
Never	After the subject or between the helping verb and main verb	• I have never been to Mumbai. • He never accepts his mistakes.
Hourly	At the end	• My mother calls me hourly.
Weekly	At the end	• They call me weekly for the interview classes.
Monthly	At the end	• We will meet monthly.
Yearly	At the end	• The books are checked yearly.
Quarterly	At the end	• The company offers a dividend every quarter/ quarterly.
Fortnightly	At the end	• We’ll call the kids and check on them fortnightly.
Twice a week	At the end	• I go to my village twice a week.
Once every 30 minutes	At the end	• His phone notifies him to drink water once every 30 minutes.
Thrice a year	At the end	• I visit my hometown thrice a year.

Hope you enjoyed the lesson! For one-on-one classes, contact me at [email protected].

Related posts:

• Adverbs of time
• Adverbs of place
• Adverbs of manner