Adverbs of Time | Learn Basic English Grammar

Hello, everyone.

Welcome to this English course on adverbs.

And in this video I'm gonna focus on Adverbs of Time.

Now adverbs of time tell us ‘when’ an action happens,

and also ‘how long’ and ‘how often’.

Now these adverbs are extremely common in English,

so you really need to know about them.

So let's start learning together.

Let's now take a look at a few example sentences telling us ‘when’ something happened.

‘She ate ice cream yesterday.’

The adverb in this sentence is… have you noticed?

‘yesterday’ of course.

And it's an adverb of time.

When did you eat ice cream? ‘yesterday’

I see you now.

Now where is the adverb in this sentence?

Of course the adverb is ‘now’.

Again it's an adverb of time.

When do I see you?

‘now’ ‘I tell him daily.’

The adverb is ‘daily’.

Again adverb of time.

‘We met last year.’

Can you see the adverb?

Of course the adverb in this case is ‘last year’.

Again notion of time.

When did we meet? ‘last year’

And finally, ‘He will call you later’.

The adverb in this sentence is also an adverb of time.

It is ‘later’.

So these are all adverbs of time And as you can see in those examples,

usually adverbs of time are at the end of the sentence.

Let's do a bit of pronunciation practice.

Repeat after me, please.

‘She ate ice cream yesterday.’

‘I see you now.’

‘I tell him daily.’

‘We met last year.’

‘He will call you later.’

Good guys.

Let's move on.

Let's now move on to example sentences showing us how long something happened.

These adverbs are also usually placed at the end of the sentence.

But let's have a look.

‘She stayed home all day.’

Which part of this sentence is an adverb?

Can you see it?

Of course, ‘all day’.

And it tells us how long she stayed home.

‘I studied in Canada for a year now.’

In this sentence, ‘for a year’ tells us how long I studied in Canada.

‘He has taught English since 1990.’

How long has he taught English?

Since 1990.

‘I studied English for four hours.’

Which pond is the adverb?

‘For four hours’ ‘How long did I study English?’

‘for four hours’ And finally, ‘We have lived in New Zealand

since 2005.’

The adverb is of course ‘since 2005’.

As you can see adverbs are not necessarily just one word.

‘since 2005’ - two words.

‘for four hours’ - three words.

Okay, so they're not just one word sometimes they're more than one.

Now let's do a bit of pronunciation practice.

Repeat after me.

‘She stayed home all day.’

‘I studied in Canada for a year.’

‘He has taught English since 1990.’

‘I studied English for four hours.’

‘We have lived in New Zealand since 2005.’

Good guys.

Let's move on.

Adverbs telling us how often express the frequency of an action.

They're usually placed before the main verb, but after the auxiliary verb,

such as B may have or must.

The only exception is if the main verb is the verb to be.

In which case the adverb goes after the main verb.

Let's have a look at a few example sentences.

‘I often eat pizza.’

Can you spot the adverb?

It's ‘often’.

And as you can see, it is placed before the main verb which is ‘eat’.

So ‘I often eat’.

The second example, ‘He has never drunk Cola.’

In this case, we have an auxiliary verb.

The auxiliary verb ‘have’ and the main verb is ‘drunk’.

So the adverb is placed between the auxiliary verb and the main verb.

‘He has never drunk.’

‘You must always brush your teeth.’

Same applies.

We have an auxiliary verb ‘must’.

Okay.

And we have the main verb ‘brush’, so the adverb goes after the axillary verb,

but before the main verb.

‘You must always brush.’

‘I am seldom late’.

So the main verb is the verb ‘to be’.

Be careful.

So in this case the adverb goes after the main verb.

‘I am seldom late’.

And finally, ‘He rarely lies.’

The main verb is ‘lies’.

So the adverb goes before the main verb.

‘He rarely lies’.

Okay.

Let's do a bit of pronunciation practice.

Now repeat after me.

‘I often eat pizza.’

‘He has never drunk Cola.’

‘You must always brush your teeth.’

‘I am seldom late.’

‘He rarely lies.’

Great job guys.

Let's move on.

Some adverbs expressing ‘how often’ express the exact number of times that an action happened

They're called definite ‘adverbs of frequency’.

And in this case, they're usually placed at the end of the sentence.

Let's have a look at a few examples.

‘I visit my dentist yearly.’

The adverb is ‘yearly’.

Okay.

‘Once a year’ and it expresses the exact number of times that I visit my dentist.

It's a definite adverb of frequency, so it's placed at the end of the sentence.

Other example, ‘He goes to the gym once a week.’

Again we have a definite adverb of frequency which is ‘once a week’.

‘I work five days a week.’

Same thing.

We have a definite adverb of frequency which is ‘five days a week’

so it's placed at the end of the sentence.

And finally, ‘I saw the movie five times.’

Again ‘five times’ expresses the exact number of times that I saw the movie.

Let's do a bit of pronunciation practice.

Repeat after me.

‘I visit my dentist yearly.’

‘He goes to the gym once a week.’

‘I work five days a week.’

‘I saw the movie five times.’

Good.

Moving on now.

If you want to use more than one adverb of time in a sentence,

you should put them in the following order: First, ‘how long?’.

Second, ‘how often?’.

And finally, ‘when?’.

Let's take a look at a very good example sentence.

‘He taught at the school for ten days every month last year.’

Now as you can see, first, we're told ‘how long’ - for ten days.

Then, we're told ‘how often’ - every month.

And finally, were told ‘when’ exactly - last year.

This is a very good sentence using the different kinds of adverbs of time in the right order,

so I hope you can do the same let's practice pronunciation together.

Now repeat after me.

‘He taught at the school for 10 days every month last year.’

Good job, guys.

Let's now practice together okay guys.

Let's do a bit of extra practice.

I have four example sentences for you to spot adverbs of time,

so let's get started.

‘He has been to Canada three times.’

Can you spot the adverb?

Of course the adverb is the adverb frequency ‘three times’.

Okay.

How often has he been to Canada three times.

The second example is, ‘Generally I don't like to eat spicy food.’

The adverb is ‘generally’.

And remember I told you some adverbs of frequency work well at the beginning of a sentence if

you want to emphasize the frequency, so ‘generally’ is one of them.

Another example would be ‘sometimes’.

Next example.

‘He will clean his room regularly from now on.’

Now be careful.

In this case, we have two adverbs.

The first one ‘regularly’.

The second one ‘from now on’.

Keeping the order, ‘regularly’ is ‘how often?’

followed by ‘when?’ – ‘from now on’.

And finally, ‘I've been going to church for four days

every month since 1996.’

Three adverbs in this case.

‘how long?’ – ‘for four days’ ‘how often?’

- ‘every month’ ‘when?’ – ‘since 1996’

Let's practice pronunciation now.

Please repeat after me.

‘He's been to Canada three times.’

‘Generally, I don't like to eat spicy food.’

‘He will clean his room regularly from now on.’

‘I've been going to church for four days every month since 1996.’

Great job.

Moving on.

Okay guys.

You now know a lot more about adverbs of time.

Remember these adverbs are extremely common in English,

so it's very important for you to learn about them.

They will improve your English skills very quickly.

Okay now there are obviously other types of adverbs

- adverbs of place of manner and of degree And I will focus on these in my next videos,

so check them out.

Thank you for watching my video and see you next time.

Thank you very much guys for watching my video.

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