Learn common adverbs of frequency used for daily habits
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| Welcome to Can Do Chinese by ChineseClass101.com. |
| 嗨大家好，我是李殷如。 |
| (Hài dà jiā hǎo, wǒ shì Lǐ Yīnrú.) |
| “Hi everyone, my name is Yinru Li.” |
| In this lesson, you will learn some common adverbs of frequency and how to use them to talk about daily habits. |
| If you’re watching this video, chances are you’re working hard on learning Chinese. You may study Chinese every day. You may spend, let’s say, five days a week, one day a week, to study Chinese, doesn’t matter. |
| When talking about, talking about things you do repeatedly or when describing a habit, you often need words like “every day, sometimes, often.” Those are adverbs of frequency. And here, I have a list of the most commonly used adverbs of frequency in Chinese, and I’ve put them in the order of, from the highest frequency to the lowest. Okay. Now, let’s take a look at them one by one. |
| First one: |
| 每天 (měi tiān) |
| 每天 (měi tiān) [enunciated] |
| 每天 (měi tiān) means “every day.” |
| 每 (měi) “every, each” |
| 天 (tiān) “day” |
| So 每天 (měi tiān) “every day.” |
| So, when you say, when you use 每天 (měi tiān), you mean you do something 7 days a week, every day. |
| 每天 (měi tiān) |
| And you may have noticed, there’s another word in the parenthesis here and this word is 都 (dōu). |
| 都 (dōu) literally means “all.” |
| And but when 都 (dōu) is attached to words like 每天 (měi tiān), it’s…it’s more of a grammatical function. It’s more like making an emphasis on the words it’s following. So, instead of saying “every day,” 每天都 (měi tiān dōu), it’s like saying, “every single day,” making 每天 (měi tiān) even stronger. |
| Also, when you have, when you use “every day” in a complete sentence, meaning you use it with a verb phrase, you often have to use 都 (dōu) after 每天 (měi tiān). |
| 每天都 (měi tiān dōu), then the verb. |
| So, let’s just remember 每天都 (měi tiān dōu) as “every day” in this lesson. |
| 每天都 (měi tiān dōu) “every single day” |
| Okay. |
| Next one. |
| Next one is 一般 (yìbān). |
| 一般 (yìbān) [enunciated] |
| When 一般 (yìbān) is used as an adverb, it means “normally, generally, or usually.” |
| So, it implies that unless there is an emergency or unless there is something I didn’t plan on, I do this thing as a routine. |
| 一般 (yìbān) |
| So, it’s probably 6 days a week or 7 days a week. So, let’s say you, usually, you normally study Chinese at night, so you would say: |
| 我一般晚上学中文。 (Wǒ yībān wǎnshàng xué zhōngwén.) |
| 我一般晚上学中文。 (Wǒ yībān wǎnshàng xué zhōngwén.) |
| Okay. |
| So this is 一般 (yìbān). Maybe 6, maybe 7 days a week. |
| Next word is: |
| 经常 (jīngcháng) |
| 经常 (jīngcháng) means “often.” |
| 经常 (jīngcháng) [enuncaited] |
| So when someone tells you they 经常 (jīngcháng) do something, they probably do it four times or five times a week. |
| 经常 (jīngcháng) |
| So, let’s say you often study Chinese in the morning. |
| 我经常早上学中文。 (Wǒ jīngcháng zǎoshang xué zhōngwén.) |
| 我经常早上学中文。 (Wǒ jīngcháng zǎoshang xué zhōngwén.) |
| Okay. So this is 经常 (jīngcháng). |
| And next one is with a little lower frequency: |
| 偶尔 (ǒuěr) |
| 偶尔 (ǒuěr) [enunciated] |
| 偶尔 (ǒuěr) means “sometimes.” |
| So, just like 经常 (jīngcháng), 偶尔 (ǒuěr) has a flexible range as well. It could be as little as 1 day a week or as much as 3 days a week. |
| 偶尔 (ǒuěr) “sometimes, from time to time” |
| So, let’s say, “I sometimes use YouTube to study Chinese.” |
| 我偶尔用YouTube学中文。 (Wǒ ǒu'ěr yòng YouTube xué zhōngwén.) |
| 我偶尔用YouTube学中文。 (Wǒ ǒu'ěr yòng YouTube xué zhōngwén.) |
| So I sometimes use YouTube, sometimes I use other websites or devices, okay. |
| 偶尔 (ǒuěr) |
| Okay. And next one, with even lower frequency is: |
| 很少 (hěn shǎo) |
| 很少 (hěn shǎo) |
| When used as an adverb of frequency, 很少 (hěn shǎo) means “seldom” or “rarely.” |
| 很 (hěn) |
| 很 (hěn) means “very” |
| And 少 (shǎo) means “little” or “few.” |
| 很少 (hěn shǎo) is “rarely.” |
| Okay. |
| So, “I rarely use YouTube to study Chinese.” |
| 我很少用YouTube学中文。 (Wǒ hěn shǎo yòng YouTube xué zhōngwén.) |
| 很少 (hěn shǎo) |
| Okay. The last one is the ultimate opposite of this one on the left. So, not 7 days a week, but zero days a week, zero times, never. |
| 从不 (cóngbù) |
| 从不 (cóngbù) “never” |
| So, what is something that you never do? |
| 你从不做什么？ (Nǐ cóng bù zuò shénme?) |
| 你从不做什么？ (Nǐ cóng bù zuò shénme?) |
| Let me know in the comment section. |
| Now, let’s go over the adverbs of frequency one more time. |
| Okay, from the highest frequency, it’s “every single day” 每天都. (měi tiān dōu). |
| 每天都. (měi tiān dōu), okay. |
| Next one is “normally, usually” 一般 (yìbān). |
| 一般 (yìbān) [enunciated] |
| Okay. |
| And next is “often” 经常 (jīngcháng). |
| 经常 (jīngcháng) [enunciated] |
| And one more to the right is 偶尔 (ǒuěr) “sometimes.” |
| 偶尔 (ǒuěr) [enunciated] |
| And then “rarely, seldom ” 很少 (hěn shǎo). |
| 很少 (hěn shǎo) [enunciated] |
| Last one, “never” 从不 (cóngbù). |
| 从不 (cóngbù) [enunciated] |
| All right. So these are our key vocabulary words of this lesson. |
| And in the next section, you are going to hear a dialogue. Two neighbours are talking about their daily habits. So when you’re listening, I want you to pay attention to which and where the adverb of frequency is used. Are you ready? |
| 你吃早饭吗？(Nǐ chī zǎofàn ma?) |
| 吃。我每天都吃早饭。 (Chī. Wǒ měitiān dū chī zǎofàn.) |
| Okay, one more time, a bit slower. |
| 你吃早饭吗？(Nǐ chī zǎofàn ma?) |
| 吃。我每天都吃早饭。 (Chī. Wǒ měitiān dū chī zǎofàn.) |
| Well, if you heard 每天都 (měitiān dū), you’re right, okay. So, the two neighbours are talking about their daily habits of eating breakfast. |
| So the first one is asking… |
| 你吃早饭吗？(Nǐ chī zǎofàn ma?) “Do you eat breakfast?” |
| 吃早饭 (chī zǎofàn) means “eat breakfast.” |
| So, 你吃早饭吗？(Nǐ chī zǎofàn ma?) means “Do you eat breakfast?” |
| So, the second person first answers by giving a passive answer. So, he gives a passive answer by repeating the verb that’s used previously in a question which is 吃 (chī). Okay, so he said 吃 (chī), which means, which translates to “I do” or “yes.” |
| And then the adverb of frequency in a sentence: |
| 我每天都吃早饭。 (Wǒ měitiān dū chī zǎofàn.) “I eat breakfast every single day.” |
| 我每天都吃早饭。 (Wǒ měitiān dū chī zǎofàn.) |
| Okay. Next, let’s have a little, have a few more example sentences with our adverbs of frequency. So, for example, someone asks you, “Do you eat breakfast?” 你吃早饭吗？(Nǐ chī zǎofàn ma?), but you’re the type of people who drink coffee as breakfast. |
| So you can answer: |
| 我不吃早餐。 (Wǒ bù chī zǎocān.) “I don’t eat breakfast.” |
| I normally drink coffee, okay. |
| So “drink coffee” in Chinese is 喝咖啡 (hē kāfēi). |
| 咖啡 (kāfēi) means “coffee” and 喝 (hē) is “to drink.” |
| So, 喝咖啡 (hē kāfēi) is “to drink coffee.” |
| So, “I normally coffee” is 我一般喝咖啡。(Wǒ yībān hē kāfēi.) |
| So we put 一般 (yībān) here. |
| 我一般喝咖啡。(Wǒ yībān hē kāfēi.) “I normally drink coffee.” |
| Well, if you’re not a coffee drinker and you rarely drink coffee, you would use: |
| 我什么喝咖啡。(Wǒ shénme hē kāfēi.) |
| 我很少喝咖啡。 (Wǒ hěn shǎo hē kāfēi.) “I rarely drink coffee.” |
| 我很少喝咖啡。 (Wǒ hěn shǎo hē kāfēi.) |
| Okay. I wonder, do a lot of you still watch television, nowadays? |
| 你看电视吗？ (Nǐ kàn diànshì ma?) “Do you watch TV?” |
| If you often watch TV, you can say: |
| 我经常看电视。 (Wǒ jīngcháng kàn diànshì.) |
| 看 (kàn) is “to watch.” |
| And 电视 (diànshì) is “television.” |
| So, 我经常看电视 (wǒ jīngcháng kàn diànshì) is “I often watch television.” |
| 我经常看电视。 (Wǒ jīngcháng kàn diànshì.) |
| Well, if you never watched TV, you would replace 经常 (jīngcháng) with...从不 (cóngbù). |
| 我从不看电视。 (Wǒ cóng bù kàn diànshì.) “I never watch TV.” |
| Okay. |
| Well, if you don’t like watching stuff, you may enjoy listening to things like music, okay. |
| Listen to music in Chinese is 听音乐 (tīng yīnyuè). |
| 听音乐 (tīng yīnyuè) “listen to music.” |
| Well, I sometimes listen to music. In Chinese, it’s… |
| 我偶尔听音乐。 (Wǒ ǒu'ěr tīng yīnyuè.) |
| 我偶尔... (Wǒ ǒu'ěr...) |
| 我偶尔听音乐。 (Wǒ ǒu'ěr tīng yīnyuè.) |
| Okay. |
| So, let’s look at all our example sentences here. |
| Did you ever notice where we place, where we position the adverb of frequency? |
| Yes! We usually put or we have to put them at the 我 (wǒ) [the subject], and before the [verb phrase]. So it’s between the subject, so it’s between the subject and verb phrase, okay? |
| 我每天都吃早饭。(Wǒ měi tiān dōu chī zǎofàn.) |
| [subject] [adverb] [verb phrase] |
| Okay. |
| 我一般喝咖啡。(Wǒ yībān hē kāfēi.) |
| [subject] [adverb] [verb phrase] |
| Okay. |
| Same here. So, with that in mind, with where you need to put the adverb of frequency and all the adverbs of frequency we’ve learned in this lesson, you should be able to talk about your daily habits without any problem. |
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