VOCABULARY EXPRESSIONS OF TIME HOW LONG ? When you want to know about the duration (length of time) of an activity, use how long? Examples: · How long is your class? My class is forty-five minutes long. · How long was the arbitration? It was four days long. Pattern One - number + plural time + long unit ¯ ¯ ¯ thirty minutes long twenty minutes long four weeks long six days long two months long Pattern Two - all + singular time + long unit ¯ ¯ ¯ all day long all night long all year long all week long Examples: · How long were your computers down? They were down all morning long. It was terrible! · How long will Joe be out of the office? He’ll be out all week long. He won’t be back until next Monday. HOW OFTEN ? When you want to know about the frequency (repeated times) of an activity, use how often? Examples: · How often does he fly to New York? He flies there once a month. [1] · How often do you play tennis? I usually play twice a week. [2] · How often do you go camping? I try to go three times a year. Pattern One - unit of + a + singular time frequency period ¯ ¯ ¯ once a week twice a year three times a day four times a week six times a year several times a month Sometimes an activity takes place in an alternating pattern. For example, you may play tennis on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, but not play on Tuesday and Thursday. Use the following pattern to express alternating patterns of frequency. Pattern Two - every other + singular time unit ¯ ¯ every other week every other day every other year every other weekend Examples: · How often do you visit your wife’s family? We usually see them every other weekend. · How often do they have elections? They have them every other year. Finally, many activities take place on a regular frequency that does not meet the other two patterns. Examples: · The President of the United States is elected every four years. · Publicly held companies must publish their interim earnings statement every ninety days in the U.S. The above activities/events take place in fixed, established patterns of frequency. To express frequency of repeated action such as the above, use the following pattern: Pattern Three - every + number + plural time unit ¯ ¯ ¯ every four days every eight hours every two minutes every thirty days every sixty seconds Examples: · They change shifts in that hospital every eight hours. · How often do you review your employees’ job performance? Every six months. Summary Example · How often do you get paid? We get paid - every fifteen days - twice a month - every other week Two nice expressions to know When action occurs or events take place sometimes, but without any particular regularity – two very fluent ways to answer the question “How often?” are: - every now and then - every so often Both the above expressions mean “sometimes.” Place all the expressions explained in this worksheet at the END of your sentence. ________________________________ [1] Once means one time. [2] Twice means two times.