What is the difference between rarely and occasionally

Need even more definitions? Just between us: it's complicated. Ask the Editors 'Everyday' vs. What Is 'Semantic Bleaching'?

How 'literally' can mean "figuratively". Literally How to use a word that literally drives some pe Is Singular 'They' a Better Choice? The directors meet weekly to review progress. Sometimes, usually for reasons of emphasis or style, some adverbs of definite frequency may go at the FRONT, for example: Every day , more than five thousand people die on our roads. They go before the main verb except the main verb "to be" : We usually go shopping on Saturday.

I have often done that. She is always late. Occasionally , sometimes , often , frequently and usually can also go at the beginning or end of a sentence: Sometimes they come and stay with us. I play tennis occasionally.

Each has its own meaning. In practice, all of the words have some overlap, but we can make some inferences from word choice.

For example, when somebody says sometimes, we can guess that they didn't mean often or rarely, or they would have used those more specific words instead.

But then again, sometimes people use sometimes to be vague like I just did , so a lot depends on the context. The times I visit someone? That's rather a lot for a brother. Frequently - Often enough to be annoying. I could even tell you how often. Often - Frequently enough to not be sometimes or seldom. It's my preferred option. To me the above table seems to be taken out of the air and I would like to know where it comes from.

I would consider "seldom" and "rarely" as variants with the same meaning not very often and I don't believe that any speaker ever thinks of a differentiation according to percentages.

No speaker has statistic values in his pocket and choses adverbs of frequency according to percentages. The same is true for "often" and "frequently".

They are variants with the same meaning. That table seems to come from someone who has no real knowledge of language. Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top.

Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Note again the negative tone in which it is used:. This page has been archived and is no longer updated. Find out more about page archiving. You are in:. Pual from Thailand writes: I've learned that the words hardly and rarely have the same meaning and that moreover we can use these words interchangeably in any sentence. Roger Woodham replies:. Thus along a spectrum of frequency, starting with most frequent and ending with least frequent, we might find the following: Well doctor….

I always have two meat rolls for breakfast. Without fail. Every day. I usually have poached eggs on toast at the weekend.