Always and never. Siempre y nunca. But what about everything in between?
That’s where most Spanish learners get lost; somewhere between “I always know this” and “I never remember how to say it.”
So, let’s fix that today.
We’re going to break down the Spanish adverbs of frequency, show you some bonus alternatives that make you sound more natural, and finish with a few everyday phrases native speakers use all the time.
¡Vamos!
Step 1: The Five Core Adverbs
Let’s start simple. There are five common adverbs of frequency in Spanish you’ll hear constantly:
Siempre, casi siempre, a veces, rara vez, and nunca. In English, that’s always, almost always, sometimes, rarely, and never.
You can think of them on a scale from left to right, from most frequent to least frequent:
Siempre → Casi siempre → A veces → Rara vez → Nunca
Once you visualize that, it becomes easier to think in Spanish instead of translating back and forth. You start to feel the meaning of each word instead of trying to memorize it.
And trust me, after seeing thousands of students reach fluency, that’s the real secret — not memorizing, but feeling the rhythm of the language.
Step 2: Where They Go in a Sentence
Now, how do you use them? Most of the time, adverbs of frequency go between the subject and the verb. So, if you want to say “I always drink coffee in the morning,” you’d say:
- ‘’Yo siempre tomo café en la mañana’’-
If I don’t, I basically act like a zombie all day. (You know what I mean.)
You can replace siempre with any of the others, and the sentence still works perfectly:
- ‘’A veces tomo café en la mañana’’-
-I sometimes drink coffee in the morning. - ‘’Nunca tomo café en la mañana’’
-I never drink coffee in the morning.
Same structure, different feeling. It’s simple, flexible, and instantly useful.
Step 3: The “-mente” Adverbs
Once you’re comfortable with those five, you can expand your vocabulary with adverbs that end in -mente.
These are super handy when you want to be more specific, words like daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly.
Here’s how they work.
Take a time word, like día (day), semana (week), mes (month), or año (year), and add -mente.
You get diariamente (daily), semanalmente (weekly), mensualmente (monthly), and anualmente (yearly).
They look long, but don’t worry, they’re much easier than they seem. Once you recognize the base word, the meaning becomes obvious.
There are also two bonus adverbs you’ll hear all the time: frecuentemente (frequently) and ocasionalmente (occasionally).
Let’s put them to work:
- Él juega fútbol diariamente.
He plays soccer daily. - Él juega fútbol frecuentemente.
He plays soccer frequently.
One cool thing about adverbs ending in -mente is that you can move them around. You can place them before the verb or at the end of the sentence, and both sound perfectly natural.
- Él frecuentemente juega fútbol.
Él juega fútbol frecuentemente.
Both are correct; Spanish offers some nice flexibility here.
Step 4: Saying “Every” and “Each”
Now let’s talk about a few everyday phrases that make you sound like a native speaker.
The first one is todos los días, “every day.”
You can change it up depending on the time frame: todas las semanas (every week), todos los meses (every month), or todos los años (every year).
Let’s see how that works:
- Yo veo una película todos los domingos.
I watch a movie every Sunday.
Even if I usually fall asleep halfway through, jaja.
There’s also another way to say it, a little variation that feels just as natural.
Instead of todos los or todas las, you can say cada, which means “each.”
For example:
- Voy al mercado cada semana.
I go to the market each week.
Both versions mean the same thing; the difference is just style. Sometimes you’ll say todos los días, sometimes cada día. They’re both perfectly fine, and using both will make your Spanish sound more natural and varied.
Step 5: Talking About “Times per Period”
Here’s another super useful pattern you’ll love.
If you want to say “once a day,” “twice a week,” or “three times a year,” Spanish has a simple structure for that:
You use a number plus the word vez (or veces, if it’s plural), followed by the time frame.
So you get:
- Una vez al día – once a day
- Dos veces a la semana – twice a week
- Tres veces al mes – three times a month
- Cuatro veces al año – four times a year
Let’s put that into real sentences:
- Yo viajo dos veces al año.
I travel twice a year. - Hago ejercicio tres veces a la semana.
I work out three times a week.
These little phrases usually go at the end of a sentence, that’s the most natural place for them.
They’re great because you can personalize them infinitely. Instead of “once,” you can say dos, tres, diez, or veinte veces. And instead of al día, you can say a la semana, al mes, or al año.
Step 6: Quick Recap
Let’s take a breath and look back at what we’ve learned so far.
You now know the five core adverbs: siempre, casi siempre, a veces, rara vez, and nunca.
You’ve learned the “-mente” words like diariamente, semanalmente, mensualmente, anualmente, frecuentemente, and ocasionalmente.
You can use todos los / todas las or cada to talk about how often something happens, todos los días, cada semana, todos los años.
And finally, you know how to express how many times something happens: una vez al día, dos veces a la semana, tres veces al año.
You’ve basically mastered the building blocks for talking about habits, routines, and frequency in Spanish, the kind of thing people talk about every single day.
Step 7: Making It Stick
Now that you’ve got the theory, the next step is practice.
Try describing your daily habits out loud, using what you’ve learned.
For example:
- Voy al gimnasio tres veces a la semana.
-I go to the gym three times a week. - Casi siempre tomo café en la mañana.
-I almost always drink coffee in the morning. - Veo películas todos los fines de semana.
-I watch movies every weekend.
When you start putting these adverbs into real sentences, you’ll notice how naturally they fit. And soon, you won’t even have to think about where to place them; they’ll just roll out.
Even if you make mistakes, don’t stress. These adverbs are forgiving and super intuitive once you’ve practiced them a few times.
Step 8: What’s Next?
Now that you’ve got a handle on adverbs of frequency in Spanish, you’ve unlocked one of the most useful tools for speaking naturally in Spanish.
But it doesn’t stop here.
These are just one group in a much bigger family. You’ve still got adverbs of place (aquí, allá, cerca, lejos), adverbs of quantity (mucho, poco, bastante), and adverbs of time (ya, todavía, pronto, siempre).
Each of those helps you add color, precision, and flow to your Spanish.
If you want to know more of them, drop us a comment and I’ll be back with more of these small but powerful words that can transform your Spanish from textbook-level to natural and expressive.
Until then, keep practicing, keep speaking, and keep having fun with it.
