Reference · module 17
How and how often
Everything this module explains, on one page.
quickly, carefully
Say how somebody does something.
- Add -ly to an adjective and you have an adverb: quick becomes quickly, careful carefully, slow slowly. It describes the verb, not the person.
- She is a careful driver describes her. She drives carefully describes the driving. Same idea, two different words for it.
- Three are irregular: good becomes well, fast stays fast, hard stays hard. hardly exists and means almost not, which is a different word entirely.
The mistake you are about to make
She drives careful.
She drives carefully.
In many languages the adverb looks exactly like the adjective, so the bare form comes out. English keeps them apart: careful describes her, carefully describes the driving.
How often
Say how often something happens.
- always, usually, often, sometimes, rarely, never. They go before the main verb and after be, which you already know from A1.
- For a number of times: once a week, twice a month, three times a year. once and twice are their own words; from three it is just times.
- Those phrases go at the END: I go swimming twice a week. Only the single-word adverbs live in the middle of the sentence.
The mistake you are about to make
I twice a week go swimming.
I go swimming twice a week.
One-word adverbs sit in the middle, so the phrases try to join them. Once a week, twice a month, three times a year all go at the end.
Where everything goes
Put a long sentence together in the right order.
- English word order is fixed: subject, verb, object. I like coffee, never Coffee I like or Like I coffee.
- After the object come manner, place, time, in that order: She sang beautifully at the theatre last night.
- Nothing goes between the verb and its object. I like very much coffee is the mistake, and I like coffee very much is the sentence.
The mistake you are about to make
I like very much coffee.
I like coffee very much.
The intensifier goes in front of the verb in most languages, so it lands between the verb and its object. English puts nothing in that gap.
because, so, although
Join two sentences into one.
- because gives the reason, so gives the result. I stayed home because I was tired. I was tired, so I stayed home. Same facts, opposite directions.
- although and but both contrast, and they sit in different places. Although it was raining, we went out. It was raining, but we went out.
- None of these moves the verb, which is where English is easier than German. Word order stays exactly as it was in each half.
The mistake you are about to make
Although it was raining, but we went out.
Although it was raining, we went out.
Several languages pair the two up — although … but. English takes one or the other, never both in the same sentence.