English Grammar Hack: Where should you put the adverb?

Hi. I'm Rebecca from engVid. Let's start this lesson with a little exercise.

Okay? Now, I want you to tell me: Which of these three sentences is correct? Do

we say: "Never I drive to work" or "I never drive to work" or "I drive never

to work"? One of them is correct; two of them are wrong. Which one is right?

Think about it for a second. Okay. So, I hope you said that this one is right and

the others are wrong. But the point is: Why should it be like that? Okay? Maybe

it's not like that in your language. Why is it like that in English? And is it

always like that in English? How are you supposed to know? Okay. It's not easy.

One of the things that you need to do when you're learning another language,

like English, is to not only learn vocabulary, but also to know where to

put that vocabulary in the sentence. Right? You need to know the correct word

order; the natural word order. And it's not always easy to know that. So, in

this lesson, I'm going to focus on teaching you adverbs of frequency, which

you know. You know these words, but I'm going to give you a simple system so

that you know exactly where to put these words when you're constructing a

sentence. Okay? There is a system, and it does vary, but it's also easy for you

to learn once you understand the system.

So, what are "adverbs of frequency"? Well, these are words which are

basically telling us about time; how often you do something. Okay? For

example, words like: "never", which is 0% of the time — all the way to

"always", which is 100% of the time, or "sometimes", which is half of the time;

it's like 50/50. Or words like: "rarely", "seldom" can be anywhere from

ten to fifteen/twenty percent of the time; or words like: "often" and

"usually", which might be 70 to 80% of the time. Okay? So, what... you probably

know these words, and you may be using them already, but if you're not using

them in the right position, then you're going to sound awkward — okay? — and

unnatural. And what I want to do is to help you to sound more natural and more

fluent. Okay? So, let's learn the system. Okay.

So, for adverbs of frequency, there are actually three patterns that you can

follow that will make your life easier. And every time you follow that pattern,

you will be right. Okay? I'm not giving you all of the variations; I'm just

giving you the patterns that will make sure that you are always right. Okay?

Let's start with the first two patterns. So, we put the adverb of frequency after

the verb "to be", but we put the adverb of frequency before other verbs; all

other verbs. Okay? Let me give you an example. So, I am... Okay? The verb "to

be": "I am usually on time." Or: "She was always polite." Okay? So, here, you

saw, whether it was in the present tense or past tense doesn't matter — it's the

verb "to be", so what does it mean? It goes... the adverb of frequency —

"usually", "always", "never" — all those stuff goes after the verb. Okay? But

look what happens when we have all of the other words, verbs in the English

language. It goes, the... the adverbs of frequency go before the verb. For

example: "I usually arrive on time." What's the verb? "arrive". So, the

adverb goes before. Here: "She always spoke politely." So, the verb "spoke",

and the adverb goes before. Okay? So, the... with the verb "to be", it goes

after; with all other verbs, it goes before. All right? By following this

pattern, you will always be right. Okay? That's for these two. Now, there is one

other situation, and I'm going to show you what that is in just a second.

All right. So, now let's look at the third pattern. So, when the verb

consists of more than one word, for example, when we have an auxiliary verb,

or we have a helping verb, or we have a modal verb, so then we have, let's say,

the helping part, or the modal part, and then we have the main verb — then we put

the adverb of frequency in the middle. Okay? So, we sometimes put it before, we

sometimes put it after; but in this case, we're putting it in the middle.

Okay? So, let's look at the example so you'll understand clearly. And what do I

mean by "auxiliary verbs" and "modal verbs"? Words like this: "will", which

we use for the future. Right? The "has", which we use in the perfect tenses;

"may", "might", "can", "could", "would", "should". Okay? So, these are usually

followed by a verb. "I may go", "I can go", "I would go". Right? So, if you

have an adverb of frequency, you put it between those. All right?

Let's look at an example. "I will always love you." There was a famous song by

that... by that name — right? — by Whitney Houston. "I Will Always Love

You." All right. "She has always been brilliant" — "has", "been", "always"

goes in the middle. Okay? "They would always visit us" — "would", "visit",

"always" goes in the middle. "Should": "You should always look both ways before

crossing the street" — "should" and "look", "always" goes in the middle. "He

can always call me" — "can", "call", "always" goes in the middle. And: "We

could always leave early" — "could", "leave", "always" goes in the middle.

All right. Did you get that? Okay? So, now, let's practice what we've learned

with these three patterns in the quiz that we're going to do right now.

All right. So, let's do our review. Okay? But before you start the examples,

let's do a quick review of the actual principles. So, the adverbs of frequency

will go before most verbs, after the verb "to be", and between two-part

verbs, like auxiliary verbs, or modal verbs, and so on. Okay? All right. So,

try to apply those principles. Number one: "It is great to see you." So, where

could we put the word "always"? "It is great to see you." Where can you put the

word "always"? Think about it. So, I'll help you analyze this one a little bit,

if you don't know automatically. Okay? So, what's the verb here? "is". Right?

So, after the verb "to be" — it goes after. Right? So: "It is always", "It's

always great to see you." Good. Number two: "He checks his email at noon." We

want to put in the word "usually". "He checks his email at noon." What's the

verb? "checks"? So, it goes before most verbs, so it would go here. Okay? I'm

not going to write it, but you understand. "He usually checks his email

at noon." Good.

Number three: "They will agree to that price." You want to put the word

"never". So, where do you put that? Look at the sentence. "They will never

agree", right. I heard you. Because, here, we have one of those two-part

verbs. Right? "will" and "agree", so it goes in between. Number four: "It's cold

in March." Where do we put the word "usually"? Yes. Good. We put it here.

"It's usually cold in March." Why? We had the verb "to be" again, so it goes

after that verb. Number five: "You should confirm your flight." Where

should we put the word "always"? So, look at the sentence. This is it. Right?

Two parts — goes in the middle. "You should always confirm your flight." And

number six: "She calls on Saturday." Where do we put the word "often"? Okay.

Here's our verb. This is like most verbs, so it goes here. "She often calls

on Saturday." Okay?

Now, just for you to know: What I've done here is given you the easiest rules

that you can follow to always be right. Some of these adverbs of frequency can

go in other places at other times, but not always. So, rather than trying to

remember seventeen rules, I think it's easier for you to learn three rules and

always be right. All right? Now, if you'd like some more practice with this,

which is always helpful, please go to our website at www.engvid.com. And

there, you can do a quiz on this, which will help you to reinforce those

principles very well. And while you're at engVid, you can also check out some

of our other lessons, which we may be linking to, in fact, from the... in our

lesson description, so that you can also learn more about adverbs of frequency in

general, if you're not too sure about them. Okay? And don't forget to

subscribe to my YouTube channel for lots of other grammar hacks, and vocabulary

hacks, and English hacks in general to help you learn faster and more easily.

Okay? Thanks very much for watching. Bye for now.