how many times or how often
Are "how many times" and "how often" interchangeable?
How often do you go to the cinema a month?
How many times do you go to the cinema a month?
How often have you gone to the cinema this month?
How many times have you gone to the cinema this month?
Are all these sentences correct?. Thank you in advance.
14 Answers
Grammatically not exact: How often do you go to the cinema a month? Better: How often do you go to the cinema per/every/each month?
Same problem as the above: How many times do you go to the cinema a month?
Logically not exact: How often have you gone to the cinema this month? "how often" should be used with simple present tense or simple past tense. If "how often have..." used, it seems that you ask the frequency with which he went to the cinema this month, and perhaps he would change the frequency in the rest of this month.
Right: How many times have you gone to the cinema this month?
It must just be my peculiarity, because everyone adopted the same syntax, but I would normally say:
How many times a month do you...?
How many times a week do you...?
and not,
How many times do you....a month?
How many times do you...a week?
Both sound natural to me, but for some reason I always use the first examples.
I think nearly everything has been said, but there is a difference;
"How often" requires a frequency as an answer; "x times in period y".
"How often do you drive the car?" "About 10 times a week."
"How many times" is an incomplete question without a period of some sort;
"How many times in a week do you drive a car?" "About 10".
"How many times have you ridden the Incredible Hulk?" "Five."
The period in the last one is implied and means your life up to the present!
Another thought on this.
I would tend to use the phrase "How often...?" when asking about what a person normally does. For example, "How often do you (usually) go to the movies?" "I (usually) go about once a month". If I was asking about a specific period of time, however, I would ask "How many times...?" For example, "How many times did you go to the movies this month?" "I went 2 times this month."
Does this make sense?
How many times a month do you...?
How many times a week do you...?
This was my first thought too, which shows that dunce corner guys think alike
Nila
Question - "How often do you go to the cinema?" ("a month" is really superfluous)
Answer - "I go twice a month"
Both perfect.
Substitute "movies" for "cinema" in the USA. Substitute "flicks" apparently both in the USA and UK.
In case you are wondering "flicks" comes from the verb "to flicker" which refers to old movies that "flickered" (a bit like a faulty neon light)
Theatre is used (in the UK) for plays, operas and ballet.
Hi Nila As you can see you are "spot on" again.
Another option is "How frequently do you go to the cinema?"
Also
How many times have you gone to the cinema this month?
I would probably say
"How many times have you been to the cinema this month?"
But I am nit-picking again.
Hi Nila,
You are spot on with your observation that these phrases would be interchangeable here.
How often do you go to the cinema a month?
How many times do you go to the cinema a month?
I agree with Gus, however, that in the U.S. it is somewhat antiquated to use the word cinema - "movie" would be the word to go with. Here are a few other options that would also sound natural.
• How often/how many times do you go to the movies each (in a/per) month?
• How often/how many times in a (per) month do you go to the movies?
Thank you.
How interesting has become this thread!. I am taking a overall impression of this subject. I am learning more than I expected.
Question - "How often do you go to the cinema?" ("a month" is really superfluous)
Yes, in Spanish, it sounds strange: ¿con cuánta frecuencia vas al cine en un mes?.
Also, Quentin's example sounds similar to Spanish.
How many times a month do you...?
¿Cuántas veces al mes ....?
Then, I was thinking.
I go to the cinema twice a month.
However, "twice a month = dos veces al mes" is correct. Don't you think?
"How often do you go to the cinema in a/per/each/every month?
Here, I see that you have changed the "a" by "in a", and by "per".
In Spanish, we would say:
¿Con cuánta frecuencia al mes vas al cine? al mes = a month "how often a month do you go to the cinema? After your answers, I suppose that this translation is not correct. You can explain it if you want.
¿Con cuánta frecuencia vas al cine en un mes? en un mes = in a month "how often do you go to the cinema in a month?"
¿Con cuánta frecuencia vas al cine cada mes? cada mes = each month "how often do you go to the cinema each month?
¿Con cúánta frecuencia vas al cine todos los meses? todos los meses = every month "how often do you go to the cinema every month?"
What I want to say is that, in English, "twice a month" sounds good and "how often .... a month" does not sounds good. Is that?
Hi Ian,
Antiquated !! Are you implying that we are antiquated because we say "cinema" - that is after all where we go and not to a place called "the movies"
I had to laugh at this one...No, I am not implying that a person is antiquated for using the word cinema in all contexts. What I was trying to state was that the use of the word "cinema" when referring to the place where you go has been largely supplanted (in the U.S.) by the word "movies," which is often the abbreviated version of "movie theater." In the past, when my grandparents were young, they might have used the term cinema, but as I have stated it has largely come to a state of disuse when referring to a "movie-theater."
I believe (and feel free to correct me if I am wrong) that in the UK the word cinema is still a common word to use for the U.S. equivalent (movie theater). I would be interested in your take on this, as I believe that you probably have a better perspective of what might be more common to use in the UK.
No ofense intented but per is not an English word,rather it is a French word.
Your sample,"the cinema per/every/each month?
Disclaimer, Although per is of french origen, I wrote the above as a joke. See my comment at the begining of this tread.
But In the USA it would be movies not cinema,so, How often do you go to the movies per month?
