Truth always triumphs - usage of adverbs

TALKING ABOUT THE FREQUENCY OF AN ACTIVITY / EVENT ADVERBS OF FREQUENCY

WARM UP

Truth always triumphs

Where do you find this slogan?

Choose the correct meaning of this slogan from those given below:

1. Mostly truth wins.
2. Truth often wins.
3. Truth is never defeated.

THEME FOCUS

A. Read the following dialogue silently. Then role-play it.

A: Hari, what time do you get up?
B: I normally get up at 6 o’ clock but sometimes I have to be up by five.
A: Do you practise pranayama in the morning?
B: Of course, I do.
A: How often do you practise in a week?
B: I practise it everyday because that gives me the energy for the day. How often do you do?
A: I never do it. I must learn how to do it. Will you teach me?
B: Oh, sure.

B. Talking about the frequency of an activity / event.

GRAMMAR FOCUS

Adverbs of indefinite frequency say in an indefinite way how often something happens.


e.g. I regularly do pranayama.

Adverbs of indefinite frequency are: usually, normally, regularly, occasionally, never, often, always, seldom, etc.

Adverbs of definite frequency are those that say definitely as to how often something happens.

e.g. Our family attends mass in the church every week.

There’s another class of adverbs called degree adverbs. In the questionnaire in B we use the adverbs never, rarely, sometimes, often and always for assessing the degree of frequency, if required, by assigning values to them in terms of numbers, (as given above) for some research purposes.

Another class of degree adverbs are very, too, extremely, quite, etc., which can be used before adjectives, verbs or other adverbs.

e.g. 1. The students are sad to hear about the fire accident in a school.

How sad are they?
They are extremely sad.

e.g. 2. Geetha will get a state rank in the public exam.
Are you sure?
I am quite sure.

TASK 1: Here is a family of three, the officer, his wife and his daughter. A representative from the Star Movies Channel, who is taking a survey, interviews the officer on a Sunday. The officer is at home in the evening only on Sundays and Wednesdays but he never likes movies. His daughter, who usually comes home early, is very fond of watching films on Star Movies; so is
his wife. But she watches this channel whenever she gets time.

Taking clues from the above description, fill in the blanks:

Representative : Could you tell me whether you watch TV, Sir?
Officer : Yes, I do.
Representative : How often do you watch in a week?
Officer : ……………………………(twice a week)
Representative : How about your daughter?
Officer : ……………………………(everyday)
Representative : Which channel does she like?
Officer : She likes Star Movies.
Representative : How do you know?
Officer : …………………………… (always)
Representative : Do you watch Star Movies too?
Officer : ……………………………(never)
Representative : Does your wife watch Star Movies?
Officer : Of course, she does.
Representative : How often does she watch?
Officer : …………………………… (quite often)

ACTIVITY

After checking your answers, role-play the above dialogue.