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Tenacious Learner Posted 15 years ago
Grammar
Question. Adverbs of number.
Hi teachers,
I've found that 'once, twice, three times, etc' are adverbs of number, not adverbs of time.
Consequently they can't express a frequency on their own.
I have been to Rome twice every year. ('every year' expresses the frequency, 'twice' only the number of times.)
Am I right?
Thanks in advance
I've found that 'once, twice, three times, etc' are adverbs of number, not adverbs of time.
Consequently they can't express a frequency on their own.
I have been to Rome twice every year. ('every year' expresses the frequency, 'twice' only the number of times.)
Am I right?
Thanks in advance
Top answer
I agree with you that adverbs of number can't express frequency. However, I'd say that the whole phrase "twice every year" expresses the frequency of your visits to Rome. When you say "twice every year", it's equivalent to saying "every six months", so you can't really separate "twice" from "every year" in this particular expression, I think.
- I agree with you that adverbs of number can't express frequency.
- However, I'd say that the whole phrase "twice every year" expresses the frequency of your visits to Rome.
- When you say "twice every year", it's equivalent to saying "every six months", so you can't really separate "twice" from "every year" in this particular expression, I think.
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5 Answers
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I agree with you that adverbs of number can't express frequency. However, I'd say that the whole phrase "twice every year" expresses the frequency of your visits to Rome.
When you say "twice every year", it's equivalent to saying "every six months", so you can't really separate "twice" from "every year" in this particular expression, I think.
When you say "twice every year", it's equivalent to saying "every six months", so you can't really separate "twice" from "every year" in this particular expression, I think.
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Hi Ivanhr
The same thing happens with 'a lot of times, many times, a few times, few times' you can't separate them from these frequency expressions 'every day, every week, every month, etc'
Ivanhrso you can't really separate "twice" from "every year" in this particular expression, I think.Thank you for your reply. I completely agree with you.
The same thing happens with 'a lot of times, many times, a few times, few times' you can't separate them from these frequency expressions 'every day, every week, every month, etc'
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Not quite, I'm afraid. Expressions such as every week, every day, every month, every hour and so on certainly express frequency whereas others like many times, a few times etc don't.
You have to understand that frequency implies periodicity of some kind (repetition at regular intervals be it seconds, minutes, hours, years etc). If there's no periodicity, you can't really speak of frequenc
You have to understand that frequency implies periodicity of some kind (repetition at regular intervals be it seconds, minutes, hours, years etc). If there's no periodicity, you can't really speak of frequenc
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IvanhrNot quite, I'm afraid. Expressions such as every week, every day, every month, every hour and so on certainly express frequency whereas others like many times, a few times etc don't.Yes of course. What I meant was that, if for the present perfect I want to mention the number of times + the frequency with which the actions or situations have happened at
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