Your Routine: Adverbs of Frequency

I never have business lunches. In my job. I'm always on my way to work at lunchtime. I sometimes have coffee with my students though, usually on a Saturday after the lesson.


To talk about our routines and schedules we  often use adverbs of frequency. Study the graphics below.

 We use these words and expressions to talk about how many times we do something in a day, a year, etc, or in our daily lives.

(click to enlarge)

More Frequency Expressions

 Once|
Twice|   a day, a week, a month, a year, an hour, etc

Three, Four, etc times a day, a week, a month, a year, an hour, etc


Read the passage below, and note the position of the adverbs of frequency and other expressions of frequency.

Francine always gets up at 6:30 in the morning. She usually has breakfast before having a shower, but sometimes she has a quick coffee and muffin at her local Starbucks. Francine almost never misses breakfast. 

She's usually in the office by 9:00 or 9:15. Her company often has meetings on Mondays after lunch. Once a month, the boss will invite the staff to a lunch meeting at a restaurant nearby. Francine goes on business trips  now and then, but she's almost always in the office.

Now, we're going to look at the typical routine of Kimiko, a business executive in Japan. First, study her schedule, then do the exercises below. You may use the comments section to write your answers.

(The calendar is in jpeg format, so you can download at save it, or open a new tab or window if you like)

Exercise 1: complete the sentences with the correct adverb of frequency (there's more than one correct options for the answers in some questions).

1/ Kumiko _______ has a group on Monday mornings at 9:30. 

2/ Kumiko and her co-worker, Mr Koh, _______have lunch together.

3/ Kumiko _______has lunch with clients.

4/ There's _______ a Friday conference call with the Vancouver office at 18:00.

5/ Kumiko _______does her laundry on Sundays.

6/ If she has to do a presentation, Kumiko is _______ at work by 8:30.


Exercise 2: complete the sentences with other expressions of frequency.

1/ Kumiko has English lessons _____________a month.

2/ Kumiko and her boyfriend, Shinji, ________ meet up on Saturdays at 17:00.

3/ ____________ a month, Kumiko works in her company's Yokohama office. 

4/ Kumiko has to do presentations________ a month.  

5/ Kumiko and her friend meet for lunch________ a month.

6/ Kumiko doesn't play tennis ______day, she only plays ____ every two weeks.


Exercise 3: write about your weekly or monthly routine. 



For more on adverbs of frequency, check the video below.

 The video above is from the YouTube channel "Lauren's English Corner" and you can watch more of her ESL videos here.



(note: your instructor forgot to include the adverb of frequency, "rarely" in the second graphic. Apologies. This kind of mistake almost never happens. 😆)