Your two things
From the podcast. Thirty seconds, then we start.
Tell your teacher the two routine expressions you noted from Easy Stories in English. If you did not listen, say so — and say what you did listen to instead.
Before you read anything today, commit to a prediction. You will check it in Phase 02.
1. In English, always, usually, often, never go…
An ordinary Tuesday, three times
Read all three. Then do nothing but underline for two minutes — every word that says how often.
Yusuf · night shift
I always get home at seven in the morning, and I am usually asleep by eight. I never eat before I sleep — it does not work for me. I wake up around three in the afternoon. I sometimes go to the gym then, but honestly I often just sit on the sofa. My wife finishes work at six, so we always eat together before I leave again at ten.
Ana · two jobs
My Tuesdays are long. I am always up at half past five, and I hardly ever have breakfast at home — I eat on the train. I teach until two. Then I go straight to the second job, and I rarely get home before nine. I never cook on a Tuesday. My son usually cooks, or we order something.
Dmitri · working from home
This is going to sound lazy. I sometimes start at nine and I sometimes start at eleven — it depends. I am often still in the house at six in the evening, which is not good. I always walk the dog at lunchtime, because otherwise I do not go outside at all. I never work at weekends. That one rule is the only thing that keeps this sustainable.
Look at the words you underlined. Answer from the evidence in front of you, not from a rule you half-remember.
1. Find I always get home and I never eat. Where does the frequency word sit?
2. Now find I am usually asleep and I am always up. What is different about these two?
3. So what decides the position?
4. Ana says I hardly ever have breakfast at home. On a scale from never to always, hardly ever is…
Put the six adverbs in order, from the one that means the least often to the one that means the most often.
The rule you just found
Two positions, one decision
| Verb | Position | Example |
|---|---|---|
any verb except be | before the verb | I always get home at seven. |
be | after the verb | I am usually asleep by eight. |
| auxiliary + verb | between the two | I don't usually work weekends. |
The exception worth knowing. Sometimes and usually can also start a sentence: Sometimes I start at nine. ✓
Always and never cannot: Never I work at weekends. ✗
Each sentence puts the frequency word in the wrong place. Move it, and change nothing else.
1. I go never to the gym.
2. She always is late.
3. We eat usually at eight.
4. Never I work at weekends.
5. He is often not at home.
Place it correctly, at speed
One word per gap. Use each of these once: always · never · usually · sometimes · often · hardly.
Ana is up at half past five — every single day, without exception. She ever has breakfast at home, because there is no time. She eats on the train instead, which is what she does most mornings. On a good day she gets home by eight, but she gets home before nine, so that is the ordinary case. She cooks on a Tuesday — not once, ever. Her son cooks instead, though not every week.
Build the sentence. Put the six parts in the order English demands.
Your ordinary Tuesday
Task card · Speaking
Describe your own Tuesday to your teacher, in ninety seconds.
Use at least five different frequency adverbs, each one correctly placed. Your teacher counts them out loud at the end.
- Start at the moment you wake up and finish at the moment you go to sleep.
- Use be at least twice — I am usually… — so both positions get tested.
- One sentence must be negative: I don't usually…
Time markers you will need
Tap any of these to hear it. Note the stress on the two-syllable words — it is always on the first syllable here.
Preposition check. Match each time expression to the preposition English uses with it — get these wrong and the whole ninety seconds sounds off.
Count them
Your teacher counted. Now you answer.
1. How many frequency adverbs did you actually use in the ninety seconds?
2. Which position did you get wrong more often?
One rule, one habit
One question. If you can answer it, the lesson worked.
1. Where does the frequency adverb go?
Informal input, before Lesson 3. One episode of Friends with English subtitles. Every time a character says always, never or usually, pause and look at where it sits.
You are not learning vocabulary. You are collecting evidence that the rule you found today is real.