often

often — adverb

1. on a great number of separate occasions, with only short gaps in between, so the

1.adverbA1
Definition

on a great number of separate occasions, with only short gaps in between, so the action or event keeps coming back into your daily life — for example, eating noodles three nights a week, or calling your mother every Sunday.

Example

Maya often walks her dog in the park before breakfast.

subject + often + verb (mid-position)

How often does the bus to Tainan stop at this corner?

question form: how often + auxiliary

Common collocations
  • very often
  • quite often
  • so often
  • more often
  • how often
  • as often as
Synonyms
  • frequently

    more formal; common in writing and reports

  • regularly

    stresses an even, repeating pattern, not just a high count

  • a lot

    informal, end-position only: 'she travels a lot'

Antonyms
  • rarely

    almost never happens

  • seldom

    more formal counterpart of 'rarely'

Grammar Patterns

verb + often

often + verb

how often + question

Usage Note

Default mid-position before the main verb but after auxiliaries (she often forgets / she has often forgotten). Distinguish from sense 2: this sense answers 'how many times?' and can be modified by 'very / quite / so / more'.

Common Mistakes

I go often to the gym.
I often go to the gym.
adverbs of frequency normally sit before the main verb, not after it.
She has often not been late.
She has not often been late.
in negatives, place 'not' before 'often'.

2. in a large share of the situations or examples that you are talking about — mean

2.adverbA2
Definition

in a large share of the situations or examples that you are talking about — meaning the thing is typical or true for a big proportion of people, places, or events, though not for every single one.

Example

Children of professional musicians are often quite musical themselves from an early age.

generalisation about a group: noun + often + adjective

Dr. Tanaka often tells her students that breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

named subject + often + that-clause for a generalisation

Common collocations
  • often the case
  • often said
  • often described as
  • often considered
  • often mistaken for
Synonyms
  • typically

    stronger claim about what is normal for a category

  • commonly

    shared across many cases; slightly more formal

  • in many cases

    explicit phrase for academic or report writing

Antonyms
  • rarely

    true only in a small share of cases

Grammar Patterns

often + adjective

it is often + past participle

often + the case (that)

Usage Note

Distinguish from sense 1 (MANY TIMES): this sense does not count repetitions of one event; it labels a broad share of cases. You cannot replace it with 'many times' — 'Children of musicians are many times musical' is wrong. 'Frequently' fits sense 1 better than this sense.

Common Mistakes

Italians are often eating pasta for dinner.
Italians often eat pasta for dinner.
for general truths, use the simple present, not the progressive.
It is often that people forget passwords.
People often forget passwords.' or ✅ 'It is often the case that people forget passwords.
bare 'It is often that…' is unnatural.
Idioms

every so often

idiom

from time to time but not on any fixed schedule, with long quiet stretches between each instance.

Every so often Aunt Rosa sends us a postcard from a new country.

The old kettle still works, but every so often it makes a strange clicking sound.

as often as not

idiom

in roughly half or more of the times something happens, so it is not at all surprising when it does.

When Marcus cooks dinner, as often as not he forgets to turn off the rice cooker.

The 7 a.m. train is late as often as not, so commuters leave home earlier.

more often than not

idiom

in more than half of the times a situation happens, so the result you are describing is the usual outcome.

More often than not, the night market in Tainan stays busy until after midnight.

Lina checks the weather app before leaving, but more often than not she still gets caught in rain.

once too often

idiom

one extra time after several earlier times, so this latest time finally brings trouble or punishment.

The young fox raided the henhouse once too often and was finally caught by the farmer.

Tomas has lied to his coach once too often, and now he has been dropped from the team.

as often as not | more often than not

idiom

This phrase means that something happens most of the time.

More often than not, Maya finishes her homework before dinner.

As often as not, the train arrives on time.

Word family

  • oft
    adverbC2
  • oftentimes
    adverbC1

Synonym discussion

Sense: adverb/1

All four words describe a high count of repeated events, but they sit on different points of the precision–register scale. 'Often' is the everyday A1 default and works in speech, writing, and questions ('How often…?'). 'Frequently' is its more formal twin, common in news reports and academic prose ('passengers frequently complain about delays'); using it in casual chat sounds slightly stiff. 'Regularly' adds a claim about even spacing — Sunday after Sunday, every other Monday — so it implies a pattern, not just a high count. 'Usually' shifts further: it tells you what happens in most cases, not how many times. Compare 'I often eat at that café' (many separate visits), 'I regularly eat there on Fridays' (a fixed pattern), and 'I usually eat there when I'm in town' (the default choice when the situation arises).

often ↗frequently ↗regularly ↗usually ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

  • often the case
  • often the reason
  • often the result

Adverbs

  • very often
  • quite often
  • so often
  • too often
  • more often
  • less often

Phrases

Prepositions

  • as often as
  • more often than

Etymology

Old EnglishMiddle EnglishEnglish

The Old English ancestor 'oft' meant 'frequently' and stayed the standard form into early Middle English. Around the 1300s an extended form 'often' appeared, probably formed by adding a final '-en' on the model of words like 'seldan' (modern 'seldom'). For several centuries the two forms competed; by the 1500s 'often' had largely won out in writing, while 'oft' survived mainly in poetry and fixed compounds such as 'oft-quoted'. The 't' is silent in standard pronunciation, though some speakers — especially in careful or older speech — still pronounce it.