LinguaImmer, meistens, oft … nie: the frequency scale
You already know immer, oft, manchmal and nie. Two words fill the gaps: meistens (mostly, usually) sits between immer and oft, and selten (rarely) between manchmal and nie. fast (almost) softens the ends: fast immer, fast nie. These words normally stand right after the conjugated verb: Ich trinke meistens Tee. They can also open the sentence – then the verb comes next and the subject follows: Manchmal koche ich. With a separable verb, the prefix still closes the sentence: Ich stehe meistens früh auf.
| Word | How often |
|---|---|
| immer | always |
| meistens | mostly, usually |
| oft | often |
| manchmal | sometimes |
| selten | rarely |
| nie | never |
Ich trinke meistens Tee, aber manchmal Kaffee.I mostly drink tea, but sometimes coffee.
Jeden Tag, zweimal pro Woche: counting how often
The question is Wie oft? (how often?). For regular things, use jeden Tag (every day) – note the accusative ending of jeden, because der Tag is masculine: jede Woche, jedes Jahr. To count, add -mal to a number, written as one word: einmal, zweimal, dreimal. Then say per what: pro Woche, pro Monat, or am Tag: Ich gehe zweimal pro Woche schwimmen. You will also hear einmal in der Woche – it means the same.
Wie oft gehst du schwimmen? – Zweimal pro Woche.How often do you go swimming? – Twice a week.
Am Montag or montags?
am Montag is one Monday – this one or a particular one: Am Montag besuche ich Oma. montags, lowercase with -s, means every Monday, as a habit: Montags habe ich Deutschkurs. The same pair exists for the parts of the day: am Abend (this evening) and abends (every evening): Abends sehe ich fern. These -s words are adverbs, so they are written with a small letter – except at the start of a sentence.
Montags fängt mein Kurs um neun an.On Mondays my course starts at nine.
Words in this lesson
| Word | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| meistens | mostly, usually | Wir essen meistens zu Hause. We mostly eat at home. |
| selten | rarely, seldom | Mein Opa ist selten krank. My grandpa is rarely ill. |
| jeden Tag | every day | Ich lerne jeden Tag zehn Wörter. I learn ten words every day. |
| einmal | once | Noch einmal, bitte! Once more, please! |
| zweimal | twice | Der Bus kommt zweimal pro Stunde. The bus comes twice an hour. |
| pro Woche | a week, per week | Sie arbeitet vierzig Stunden pro Woche. She works forty hours a week. |
| montags | on Mondays | Montags ist das Museum geschlossen. The museum is closed on Mondays. |
| wie oft | how often | Wie oft fährt der Zug nach Bonn? How often does the train go to Bonn? |
| normalerweise | normally, usually | Normalerweise fahre ich mit dem Rad. Normally I go by bike. |
| fast | almost, nearly | Es ist fast acht Uhr. It’s almost eight o’clock. |
Exercises
This lesson has 11 exercises in the app:
- multiple choice: 2
- match the pairs: 1
- fill the gap: 3
- build the sentence: 2
- translate the sentence: 2
- listen and type: 1
Try the first one
Which word comes closest to immer on the frequency scale?
The answer, the other exercises, the audio and your progress are in the app – free at A0 and A1.