by Jacqueline Schaalje
Easy Easy Easy Easy Easy Easy Easy Easy Easy Easy Easy Easy Easy Easy Easy Easy
Suppose I have a sentence like this:
I eat dinner at home.
Now I want to add usually.
So I’ll say:
I usually eat dinner at home.
As you see, I put “usually” after the subject (I) and before the verb.
Here is another example:
Greg drives to work.
Now I want to say that this always happens.
So I get:
Greg always drives to work.
So again, the word “always” comes after the subject (Greg) and before the verb (drives).
Where to Put the Other Words of Frequency
It’s the same with other words of frequency (= words that tell you how often something happens):
rarely or seldom (they both mean not often)
What are the Subject and the Verb?
Just in case you didn’t know, the subject is the person or thing that does something in the sentence.
The verb is the action word (or words) that describe what the subject does.
This rule doesn’t work with phrases such as “once a year” or “every month.” We’ll talk where to put these some other time.
Have a look at some more examples:
The Wilsons sometimes picnic in the park.
My friends and I always go to the pub on Friday afternoons.
Bernadette usually orders cappuccino.
Mr Santaya never goes on holiday.
Silvia often wears a dark suit.
My boss always has a bouquet of flowers in his room.
I rarely see my aunt and uncle.
Also in Questions you put the always, never, sometimes etc in the same position, so after the subject, and before the main verb. In the following example sentences I’ve underlined the main verbs:
Does Ms Honey sometimes smoke cigarettes?
Do you always put lemon in the salad?
Do the shops never open on Sundays?
For negative sentences you put the always, never, sometimes etc after the first verb and not, and before the second verb (which is the main verb):
I don’t always go out on Saturday night.
Cory doesn’t usually drink vodka.
We don’t often play chess.
Never <> Always
Of course, in most cases you use never as a negative for always, and the other way round. And often is the opposite of sometimes. And infrequently is the opposite of frequently.
Now you’re ready for the exercise. Yay!
You can do this exercise online, here.
Put the word in brackets () in the right place in the sentence.
The train runs on time. (usually)
The train usually runs on time.
1 Do you clean your desk? (sometimes)
2 I read my email. (always)
3 Mr Hoppy uses a laptop. (never)
4 Carmen works as a freelance designer. (frequently)
5 Does Quan read the Washington Post? (usually)
6 Jan and Philip work with different clients. (rarely)
7 Danny wears a tie. (never)
8 The keys are in the same place. (never)
9 I don’t remember where my keys are. (always)
10 My students read classic novels. (sometimes)
Check your answers online.