[Grammar] How often do you visit your parents?

[beachboy]

a) How often do you visit your parents?
1 - I always/rarely visit my parents
2 - I visit my parents twice a month.


b) Do you ever visit your parents?
3 - Yes, I always visit my parents.
4 - No, I rarely visit my parents.
5 - Yes, I visit my parents twice a month.

I'd like to know whether 1 is a reasonable answer to question a). I think all the other answers (2, 3, 4 and 5) are correct.

 

[GoesStation]

One is okay with "rarely" but not "always". If you use "always", one and three are not natural. You need a bit about when you visit them, like I always visit them on Sundays.

 

[Tarheel]

You can phrase #4 this way:

Yes, but not often.

 

[tedmc]

Do you ever visit your parents?

That is a strange and blunt question to ask, I think.

 

[jutfrank]

As GoesStation says, in 1, don't use always. You mean often.

 

[beachboy]

That is a strange and blunt question to ask, I think.

Maybe the guy who asked the question, for some reason, expected a 'no' for an answer... There are people who never visit their parents. Anyway, my thread wasn't about visiting parents. It could have been anything. Like "go to the bank" or "play tennis". I don't know if it would make much difference.

 

[beachboy]

As GoesStation says, in 1, don't use always. You mean often.

I was wondering how often "always" is...

 

[jutfrank]

I was wondering how often "always" is...

Exactly.

When used as an adverb of frequency, always is similar in meaning to every time, in relation to something else happening. It doesn't make sense out of context as it is in sentence 1.

You could make it work by adding context, of course:

I always visit my parents when they ask me to.

The implied meaning here could be that I don't tend to visit them unless they ask.