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Mmonn Posted 22 years ago
Grammar

Position of "sometimes"

Please can you help me with one sentence?

One of my pupils said: "It's good to go sometimes to the church."

Where is the right position of this "sometimes"?

Thanks.
  

Top answer

Hi, mmonn, IMHO, meaning of your sentence depends on where you put the word "sometimes". Wherever you put it, it'll emphasise the words following it. and sometimes to the mosque", here "SOMETIMES" refers to "the church"].

— Bubr

  • Hi, mmonn, IMHO, meaning of your sentence depends on where you put the word "sometimes".
  • Wherever you put it, it'll emphasise the words following it.
  • and sometimes to the mosque", here "SOMETIMES" refers to "the church"].
  • - "It's good to go to the church SOMETIMES" ["...
  • but not too often", "SOMETIMES" acts on its own] Funny, I never really thought about it, thanks for the idea
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16 Answers
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Hi, mmonn,

IMHO, meaning of your sentence depends on where you put the word "sometimes". Wherever you put it, it'll emphasise the words following it. I would interpret it as follows:

- "SOMETIMES it's good to go to the church" [implies a continuation like "...rather than stay in bed until noon"; here "SOMETIMES" relates to "good to go"]

- "It's good to go SOMETIMES
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The most natural and neutral position is "It's sometimes good to go to church." (It's "to church", by the way, not "to the church".) Next most natural is "Sometimes it's good to go to church."

More awkward is "It's good to go to church sometimes." Least used and most awkward is "It's good to go sometimes to church."

The reason is that adverbs do not normally intervene betwe
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0 and what about this sentence?? 02br
02br
00I don't 01b00sometimes 02b00play volleyball0-
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0 01blockquote
01cite10Kekel12cite10I don't 11b10sometimes 12b10play volleyball12blockquote
10Hi Kekel,02br
00I'd say that's not good. I'd say:02br
01b00Sometimes I don't play volleyball... I play basket instead.02br
00I sometimes don't play volleyball... I play baske
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0 Let's wait for them, but you have helped me a lot!02br
02br
00Thanks!! 0-
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0 01blockquote
00what about this sentence?? I don't 11b10sometimes 12b10play volleyball12blockquote
10No! 01i00sometimes02i00 is an exception to the usual placement rule for frequency adverbs in that it goes most naturally at the beginning of a negative sentence (and is actually quite comfortable there even
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CalifJimI can't [always / usually / often / frequently / regularly / generally] answer questions about adverbs.
No! sometimes is an exception to the usual placement rule for frequency adverbs in that it goes most naturally at the beginning of a negative sentence (and is actually quite comfortable there even in an affirmative sentence).

A
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AnonymousIf you google it, you get a stunning 120,000 hits just for one verb: "I sometimes can't ", Are they all wrong?
If you read this eight-year-old thread carefully, you'll see that CJ did not say that 'I sometimes can't ...' was wrong.
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