English Grammar: Definite Adverbs of Frequency

Doo-doo-doo-doo-doo.

Yeah, baby.

Hi.

James from engVid.

There's nothing I like more on a weekly basis than having my white wine with my yellow scarf

around my neck.

It's an interesting magazine.

Got a director, Coppala, but I just don't see anybody who looks like me in this magazine,

it's kind of funny.

Anyway, we got a lesson to do and that's what you're here for.

I want to teach you about adverbs of frequency.

And you're going to say:

"James, I know adverbs of frequency. You've taught it, other people have."

And I'm: "Yes I have, but not quite like this."

You know, and it's good to revisit some things annually anyway. Right?

[Laughs]

I just used one.

Let's go to the board and take a look.

All right. So, once a year, James speaks slowly.

I'm going to introduce to you two different types of adverbs of frequency.

Okay? Actually, yeah, two and then two small columns.

Number one, there's the...

The one you're used to: "always", "usually", "frequently", "never", and even how it breaks down.

"Always" is 100%, "never" is 0%, and then in between we have stages of "often" is 70.

You've seen this a million times, and you're probably pretty good at it.

Right?

You have to use it with the present tense verbs, yada, yada, yada, and it tells you

how often something happens.

These are the indefinite adverbs of frequency.

What did you say?

Indefinite, where did that come from?

Well, today we're going to learn about the definite adverbs of frequency because we'll

either know the definite time or the number that something occurs.

Ready?

Let's go to the board.

We started with a joke: "Once a year, James talks slowly."

Well, you know it happens once a year.

The problem with saying "rarely" or "occasionally", you know 5%, but not exactly.

What does that mean in a month or a week?

"One time" tells you exactly what it is.

Right?

All right.

So, one of the first things we have is: "Once", "twice" or "three times a week".

You could say: "I go to the gym three times a week."

I know...

I don't maybe know the exact days, but I know exactly it's three times.

It's better than saying "regularly", or in this case, "usually go" or "often go" because

that doesn't tell me what the number is.

It just says it's repeated a lot of times enough that it's sometimes.

Okay? What does that mean, really, exactly?

Nothing, really.

But "three times" tells me something, especially if I want to get muscle, I need to go at least

three times.

Not: "I go sometimes."

It's like: "Okay."

Don't expect anything.

All right?

So, when we use the: "once", "twice", or "three times", we tell you how many times it's repeated

within a timeframe.

Sometimes we say "once" or "twice", we can say: "one time a week", "two times a week".

Personally, I like "twice", I don't know why but I do.

That's between you and I.

But a lot of times people say: "twice" or "two times", and that's okay.

It tells you how often to repeat it.

All right?

So we've talked about it.

And if you will look carefully, and I want you to notice we talk about the number, then

we have an article.

The article makes it general.

When we know in English: "a" is a general article that says generally speaking, versus

"the", and a week, so in any week.

Because it's a general week, it means in every or any week, this is how many times I repeat it.

Cool?

Yeah, you didn't know that.

That little thing there has a meaning, and you just learned how to use it in another frame.

Right?

Now, let's talk about the actual time periods.

This is how many times I repeat it by number, but let's talk about time periods.

And the time periods are simple.

You already know them.

Hours, days, weeks, months, and years.

Except here, what we're going to use instead of years...

And there is a word called "yearly", but it's really not used that much by most people.

Instead, you hear "annually". Right?

And I'm going to give you a couple of examples.

Like, if you say...

Well...

I know I'm going to hear it from you, but we...

You can say this and it's grammatically correct, but no, a lot of Canadians, and British people,

and Americans don't walk around saying: "I go three times weekly to the gym."

Okay?

Or, you know: "I go weekly to the gym."

We don't generally say that, but here's one we do say:

"You should renew your license annually."

You like that?

Because that's something the police will tell you if they pull you over and you're like:

"I forgot to do it."

Okay?

So, "annually" means every year, you should do it every year.

"You should see your dentist monthly."

Well, that's a bit much and excessive, but you get the point.

Right?

"See him monthly", go to a visit.

Actually, no, no, no.

"You should call your mother daily", at least once a day.

"Hi, Mom."

She gave you life, the least you could do is pick up the damn phone and make one phone

call, because that's what she's telling all her friends. Okay?

[Laughs] Anyway, you get the point, here.

In this case when we're using these adverbs of frequency, we want to talk about repetition

by number, how many times you do it in a given time period.

Is it once in a week, twice in a week, three times a week?

You can say the same for once a month, twice a month.

Same for a year, three times a year or four times a year.

That's the actual number.

Here, what we want to talk about is the actual time period, and how often we repeat that

time period.

Is it done monthly?

Right?

Do you check the reports monthly?

Right?

Or do you get your license renewed annually?

We want to know about the time period more than we want to know how many times you repeat

it, because to be honest, this time period tells us what happens.

If you're doing it monthly, that's 12 times at least in one year.

"Annually" means once.

Daily.

Right?

There's 30 days, that's 30 days, so we actually get the reverse or the number by doing it

that way.

Pretty cool, huh?

We can either talk about the number here and then say in the time period, or actually talk

about the time period and then we know how often it's done.

Now, if you have to go to the washroom hourly, that's a problem.

See a doctor.

I may play one on engVid, but I'm not actually really a doctor.

Anyway, so those are the indefinite, when we talked about this, which is funny because

you probably thought these are definitely because you could see the...

The percentages, but you learnt today that it doesn't tell you how many times something's

repeated, nor does it tell you over the time period, and that's why these ones are considered

definite, because you either know the time or the exact number they're repeated.

You like that?

That's cool.

Because what I want to do right now is I want to give you a little test.

Test?

What is this, engVid?

Yeah, it is.

You came here, you know there's a test.

All right?

Now, just a quick note before I do that: Adverbs of definite frequency, two basic rules.

Think of Mr. E. He's got a head and a tail.

Usually it goes at the tail, the end.

Right?

"You should get your license renewed annually."

It's at the end of the sentence. Easy enough. Right?

Or: "I go to the gym three times a week."

End of the sentence.

Not really rocket science.

But sometimes-this is rule number two-it's at the head, and that is usually used for emphasis.

Right?

"I've told you twice not to do that!"

Right?

How many times have I told you? Twice.

Now, if we say, you know: "Weekly, 10 people die in Iran from executions."

That's like, wow, I want you to understand this is happening at a very regular basis.

It's something you can understand, as opposed to "always", which means nothing, nebulous.

But "weekly", you're like: "Oh my gosh, that's a lot of people in one week.

That's one a day."

Right?

So when we want to use emphasis, we'll put it at the top or the front of the sentence,

and usually you'll find these definite adverbs of frequency at the end, and that's standard.

Cool?

All right.

Time for the quick quiz.

Are you ready?

Clock's going now.

[Makes ticking noise].

Quick test.

"__________ a week I go to the gym."

Is that: "Regularly a week" or "Three times a week"?

What do you think?

Definite versus indefinite.

Ding, it's:

"Three times a week".

Remember I spoke about "a week", that article tells us time period and repeated number?

"Regularly" doesn't give us a number.

It gives us no information, so you can't use it there.

That's the lesson on definite versus indefinite.

Quick recap: Definite ones will give you number of repeated or the actual time period so you know.

Indefinite tells us it's repeated, but we don't have that accurate information; we have

a guess, it's "usually", but you can't tell me frequently is twice or three times.

We just know it's frequently.

"Always" is 100% and "never" is 0.

Cool?

You know the rules about the head and the tail?

That usually the definite adverbs of frequency usually end up at the end.

And if you hear it at the beginning, it's for emphasis.

Good.

What is there to learn?

You learned everything.

You're an amazing student.

Anyway, look, I got to go.

I'm always running late, and I got to try and change that, so...

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