often

of|ten [ `ɔfn ] adverb ***

1. ) on many occasions or in many situations:

Often, students with family problems have difficulties at school.

Boredom often leads to bad behavior.

The home is often the most likely place in which someone is injured.

fairly/quite often: I've found that it's quite often impossible to park near the mall entrance.

often enough (=on enough occasions to achieve a particular result): I've already told you not to argue often enough.

very often: Very often it turns out that the student hasn't understood the question.

2. ) used for talking about how many times something happens in a particular period of time:

I've been swimming twice as often as I did last year.

how often?: How often do you eat meat?

fairly/quite often: I work out fairly often.

very often: He's been late for school very often this term.

all too often

used for saying that something makes you sad or upset because it happens more often than you think it should:

All too often, parents leave their children home alone.

every so often

sometimes, but not frequently:

She still calls me every so often.

more often than not or as often as not

on most occasions or in most situations:

More often than not, the arguments could have been avoided.