How to form adverbs of time and frequency in Russian?

In Russian, we often form adverbs of time (e.g. “now”) and adverbs of frequency (e.g. “often”) from adjectives or nouns, often by adding prefixes or suffixes. Here are some basic examples:

• частый (transcribed CHAStyi, meaning “frequent”) → часто (transcribed CHASta, meaning “frequently”)

• дневной (transcribed dnivNOY, meaning “day”) → ежедневно (transcribed yezhiDNYEVna, meaning “daily”)

• утро (transcribed OOTra, meaning “morning”) → утром (transcribed OOTram, meaning “in the morning”)

• начало (transcribed naCHALa, meaning “beginning”) → сначала (transcribed snaCHAla, meaning “from the beginning”)

In this article, we’ll talk about what adverbs of time and frequency are, then we’ll take you through the main ways such adverbs are formed in Russian. Ready to have a look? Let’s go!

Broadly, adverbs of time describe when something took place, while adverbs of frequency describe how often it took place. Adverbs of time might also sometimes answer questions like “since when,” or “until when.”

Like almost all adverbs in Russian, adverbs of time and frequency are mostly derived from nouns, adjectives, verbs, or numerals.

Some adverbs of time and frequency were formed by combining two different words, in ways that are not completely predictable:

• cейчас (transcribed siCHAS, meaning “now”) ⇒ сей (transcribed syey, meaning “this”) + час (transcribed chas, meaning “hour”)

• завтра (transcribed ZAFTra, meaning “tomorrow”) ⇒ за (transcribed za, meaning “after”) + утро (transcribed OOTra, meaning “morning”)

• сразу (transcribed SRAzoo, meaning “immediately”) ⇒ c (transcribed s, meaning “from”) + раз (transcribed ras, meaning “one”)

However, there are several other common patterns that you’ll see repeated in several adverbs of time and frequency. Let’s have a look!

Adding -o (transcribed o) is the most common way to turn a Russian adjective into an adverb, it’s like adding “-ly” in English. Therefore, many Russian adverbs of time and frequency use this ending. Here’s how to do it:

1. Start with an adjective with a meaning related to time or frequency

2. Cut off the adjective ending

3. Add -o

And that’s it! You have an adverb of time or frequency! For example:

To form an adverb of frequency meaning “every minute/day/week/…” you will want to add both the prefix еже- (transcribed yezhe) and the suffix -o (transcribed o) to a noun representing a time. As we saw above, you will need to remove the noun ending from the base noun. Follow the formula below:

However, you can’t do this with every time noun. Here is the full list of such adverbs:

• ежесекундно (transcribed yezhisiKOONDna, meaning “every second”)

• ежеминутно (transcribed yezhimiNOOTna, meaning “every minute”)

• ежедневно (transcribed yezhiDNYEVna, meaning “daily”)

• ежевечерне (transcribed yezhiviCHERnye, meaning “every evening”) → old-fashioned

• еженощно (transcribed yezhiNOSHCHna, meaning “every night”) → old-fashioned

• ежесуточно (transcribed yezhiSOOtachna, meaning “every 24 hours”)

• еженедельно (transcribed yezhiniDYELna, meaning “every week”)

• ежемесячно (transcribed yezhiMYEsichna, meaning “every month”)

• ежеквартально (transcribed yezhikvarTALna, meaning “every quarter”)

• ежегодно (transcribed yezhiGODna, meaning “every year”)

The suffix -жды (transcribed zhdy) can be added to a few numerals to form adverbs showing how many times something happened. There are only four such adverbs in Russian:

Here is an example of how they can be used:

In Russian, you can use nouns for times of day (e.g. “morning”) or seasons (e.g. “winter”) in the instrumental case as adverbs of time. As long as you use the instrumental case, no other ending is required!

Adverbs describing duration also come from nouns in instrumental, but in plural as they imply “many” hours / days / weeks etc.:

• Они могли годами не видеться, но оставаться лучшими друзьями.

  Transcription: aNEE magLEE gaDAmi nye VEEditsa no astaVAtsa LOOCHshymi droozYAmi

  Translation: They could not see each other for years, and still remain best friends.
• Он целыми днями играет в компьютерные игры.

  Transcription: on TSElymi DNYAmi igRAyet f kampYUtarnyie EEGry

  Translation: He plays computer games for days on end.

A lot of adverbs of time and frequency were originally prepositional phrases composed of a preposition + a noun. In these phrases, the noun still takes the appropriate case for the preposition in question. For example:

• c (transcribed s, meaning “from, since”) + genitive

  These adverbs generally answer the question “since when?”, but some of them stepped away from that original meaning, for example:

  снова

  Transcription: SNOva

  Translation: again

  Literally: lit. from anew

  сначала

  Transcription: snaCHAla

  Translation: from/at the beginning

  с детства

  Transcription: z DYETStva

  Translation: since childhood

  срода

  Transcription: SROdoo

  Translation: never

  Literally: lit. since birth

  used only in negative sentences

• до (transcribed da, meaning “until”) + genitive

  These adverbs generally mean “until a certain time”, for example:

  дотемна

  Transcription: datimNA

  Translation: until it gets dark

  до сих пор

  Transcription: da sikh POR

  Translation: until now

  Literally: lit. until this time

  допоздна

  Transcription: dapazNA

  Translation: until it gets late

• из (transcribed is, meaning “from”) + genitive

  издавна

  Transcription: EEZdavna

  Translation: since olden times,
  for a long time

  изредка

  Transcription: EEZritka

  Translation: seldom

We have looked at some popular patterns of building adverbs of time that can help you memorize them more easily, or even make one when you need it. They include:

• Adverbs of time and frequency with suffixes -o and -жды

• Adverbs of frequency with prefix еже-

• Adverbs of time originating from nouns in instrumental

• Adverbs of time originating from prepositional phrases

Ready for some practice? Download the Russian adverbs of time activities below! Happy learning!