Adverbs of Frequency – English Grammar Lessons

ESL Library Adverbs of Frequency What are adverbs? Adverbs can do many things in a sentence. They can describe verbs, adjectives, other adverbs, or entire sentences.

Adverbs of frequency tell us how often an action takes place. For example: My dog is always sleepy. Our teacher often gives us homework.

I can never remember his name. What are some common adverbs of frequency in English? What do they mean?

An easy way to remember the meaning of frequency  adverbs is to match them with percentages. How often do you do something? When talking about frequency, one hundred percent means you do something all the time.

Zero percent means you don't ever do it. The adverb "always" means 100%. "Almost always" means about 95%.

The adverbs "usually" and "often" mean about 80%. "Sometimes" means around 50%. The adverbs "seldom" and "not very often" mean about 20%.

"Rarely" means around 10%. "Almost never" means about 5%. The adverb "never" means 0%.

There are three common sentence patterns for adverbs of frequency in English. The first pattern is be plus adverb. For example, in the sentence "She is never late," the adverb "never" follows the verb "is.

" "Never" describes how often she is late. The second pattern is adverb plus verb. For example, in the sentence "We usually eat lunch in the cafeteria," the adverb "usually" comes before the verb "eat.

" "Usually" describes how often we eat lunch in the cafeteria. The third pattern is verb plus adverb plus verb. When a verb has two or more parts, the frequency adverb usually follows the first part of the verb.

For example, in the sentence "You are always looking at your phone," the adverb "always" comes between "are" and "looking. " "Always" describes how often you are looking at your phone. Let's look at some more examples of adverbs of frequency in a sentence.

It is almost always cold in this room. He is often sick. My friends usually laugh a lot.

It rarely rains in summer in my hometown. I can sometimes hear birds in my backyard. My mother is always telling me what to do.

Look at the picture and unscramble the words to make a sentence. Say or write the sentence. For example: He rarely goes to the gym.

Now you try! Thanks for watching!