Seldom

So I’m going to say it right from the start. Please stop using the word “seldomly”. Seldom is the adverb, and as we know, not all adverbs take the “-ly” ending. This is apparent with the other frequency adverbs like “sometimes”, “often” and “never”. And while I guess it’s not WRONG, it’s really quite an unnecessary variant of a word that is already an adverb.

So now that my mini rant is over, let’s get into some fun facts.

As mentioned, seldom is a frequency adverb. I remember back in my teaching days displaying an empty chart and having students guess where the adverbs went. In lieu of having an interaction with you in a classroom setting, here is the chart with the adverbs already laid out. In short, seldom means very infrequently, but more often than “rarely”

Chart source: www.englishstudyhere.com

Examples of seldom used in sentences:

• I seldom go to the library. I can order my books electronically now or get them cheap from garage sales.
• Makeup was something I seldom wore - maybe just for special outings. Now with the pandemic, I never wear makeup. 

Another cool thing about ​seldom is that if you use it as the first word introducing your sentence, then word order changes. Instead of basic English word order of subject-verb-object, word order gets flipped a bit to auxiliary verb-subject-verb-object.

• Seldom do I go to the library. 
• Seldom do I choose to wear makeup anymore.​

As always, if you have more questions about seldom or any of the other frequency adverbs, just leave a comment below, or send me a personal question by clicking on Contact me.