Souvent – often

Today we’ll look at the essential French adverb souvent, meaning “often”. For the pronunciation, don’t pronounce the final T and pronounce the EN as a nasal sound [ɑ̃].

souvent – [suvɑ̃]

often

Word origin

The Modern French adverb souvent (often) comes from sŭbindĕ (immediately after, from time to time, often) in Latin.

Example sentences

Je vais souvent à la plage.

I often go to the beach.

This example sentences uses the reflexive verb se tromper, which means to mistaken or get wrong. The expression il me semble que translates to “It seems to me that” or “I think that”.

Il me semble que vous vous trompez souvent.

It seems to me that you’re often wrong.

For this sentence is the passé composé, souvent is placed between the auxiliary verb and past participle. The geographical preposition en France can translate to “to France” or “in France”.

J’ai souvent voyagé en France.

I often traveled to France.

To ask “how often”, use à quelle fréquence.

À quelle fréquence est-ce que tu laves ton chien?

How often do you wash your dog?

Word of the Day Lessons | Lessons by David Issokson

Related lessons

• French adverbs
• Temps – time
• Jamais – never
• Toujours – always
• Sentence structure

References

• Online-latin-dictionary.com
• Wiktionary
• WordReference (souvent)
• WordReference (il me semble que)

David Issokson

David Issokson is a lifelong language learner and speaks over seven languages. Of all the languages he speaks, he's the most passionate about French! David has helped hundreds of students to improve their French in his private lessons. When not teaching or writing his French Word of the Day lessons, David enjoys his time skiing, hiking and mountain biking in Victor, Idaho.

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