Frequency: The word is one of the 700 most common words in English.
Note: 'Often' is usually used before the verb, but it may be used after the verb when it has a word like ‘less’ or ‘more’ before it, or when the clause is negative.
1.
If something ~ happens, it happens many times or much of the time.
They ~ spent Christmas at Prescott Hill...
It was ~ hard to work and do the course at the same time...
That doesn’t happen very ~.
? rarely
ADV: ADV before v, ADV with cl/group
2.
You use how ~ to ask questions about frequency. You also use ~ in reported clauses and other statements to give information about the frequency of something.
How ~ do you brush your teeth?...
Unemployed Queenslanders were victims of personal crime twice as ~ as employed people.
ADV: how ADV, as ADV as n/cl
3.
If something happens every so ~, it happens regularly, but with fairly long intervals between each occasion.
She’s going to come back every so ~...
Every so ~ he would turn and look at her.
= occasionally
PHRASE: PHR with cl
4.
If you say that something happens as ~ as not, or more ~ than not, you mean that it happens fairly frequently, and that this can be considered as typical of the kind of situation you are talking about.
Yet, as ~ as not, they find themselves the target of persecution rather than praise...
PHRASE: PHR with cl