In my last post I introduced adverbs of frequency (頻度を表す副詞) and this time I would like to introduce a few extra phrases to help you talk about how often you do something.
Last time I introduced fairly vague (曖昧な) words like often or sometimes, but if we want to be more concrete (具体的) we can use the words once, twice, 3 times etc. After these words we usually add a single time period like “a week” or “a month”, for example:
I exercise once a week – 週一回運動します
I eat out twice a month – 月2回外食します
I go on a trip 3 times a year – 年3回旅行します
Note: if we want to say something like 「2か月に1回」 we have to use a different phrase. In this situation we would say “once in 2 months”.
If you are talking about how long you did something for (時間・期間) you can also say things like:
I sleep 6 hours a night – 毎晩6時間寝ます
I work 5 days a week – 毎週5日働きます
We can use other counters (助数詞) to make many different combinations. For example:
I drink 3 coffees a day – １日コーヒー3杯を飲みます
I watch 2 films a month – 月2回映画を見ます (直訳：毎月映画を2本見ます）
Another useful word is every (毎_), which we use when we do something regularly (定期的に). For example:
I read the newspaper every morning – 毎朝新聞を読みます
I go shopping every weekend – 毎週末ショッピングします
I play tennis every Tuesday – 毎(週)火曜日にテニスをします