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.