Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[Winkydragonfly]

There was a question:How often does the Olympic Games hold?
And my answer was:Once four years.
My teacher said:You are wrong.The right answer is "Once every four years".
Oh...What is the difference between "once four years" and "once every four years"?
_________________
Winky has made many mistakes in her compositions.Sorry about that.But winky has confidence in herself,she will try to write much better than before.

[redset]

'Once four years' doesn't really make sense in English. 'Once every four years' means that it only happens once in a group of four years, then it happens again in the next group of four years, then again in the next group. Like this:

1992-1995 Barcelona (1992)
1996-1999 Atlanta (1996)
2000-2003 Sydney (2000)
2004-2007 Athens (2004)
2008-2011 Beijing (2008)

So in the first group of four years (1992, 1993, 1994, 1995) the Olympics were held once, in 1992. Then in the next group of four years (1996, 1997, 1998, 1999) the Olympics were held once. 'Every' also means that they're always held, there's never a group of four years without the Olympics. They're held regularly!

(Oh yeah, the question should be 'How often are the Olympic Games held?')

Does that help?

[Winkydragonfly]

Er....
From your words,can I say that "If we add an 'every' in the sentence.That means the Olympic Games won't be stopped,it will be held regularly."?
"If we delete an 'every' in the sentence.That means the Olympic Games may be stopped,not be held regularly."
Am I right?
Or "If we delete an 'every',that means it needn't an interval of four years.Though there isn't an interval of four years,the Olympic Games can also be held"?

(Oh,I am quite sorry for my question.Yes,You are right.We should say"How often are the Olympic Games held?"...
Thank you for pointing my mistake and giving me the answer.)
_________________
Winky has made many mistakes in her compositions.Sorry about that.But winky has confidence in herself,she will try to write much better than before.

[BourneNOIR]

[redset]

If you use every and a time, you can say that something keeps happening regularly. If you say 'I'm going to school on Monday' that means that you're going to school next Monday, but it doesn't say anything about the Monday after that, or the one after that... if you say 'I go to school every Monday' it means that if it's Monday, you're in school! This Monday, next Monday, the Monday after that, the Monday after that... every Monday (all Mondays, if that makes more sense).

Of course you don't go to school every Monday, like during the summer holidays or if you're sick, but you usually do so people will understand what you mean. With something like the Olympic Games they don't really have a four-year period when they say 'oh, we won't hold the Games this time' - it happens every four years. It's possible that something could happen and that the Games wouldn't be held, but that would definitely be unusual. Normally, they take place regularly, every four years.

So if something keeps happening regularly, you use every to say when it happens