every so often
41
2.4
- idiom
:
de vez en cuando
- Every so often I have to go before a judge to see if I'm in the right place, you know, with the right family.
Yes, every so often the Unicorn story happens.
- Yes, every so often the Unicorn story happens.
- And a hand, just a hand coming into the frame every so often to dry shave the butt.
- You may still find yourself very strong and every so often a little bit of hope will sneak in.
- The guy who makes the mechanism, sets it going, and maybe every so often maintains it.
- And then every so often some big idea happens, but it might be one person.
- Now listen, there's nothing wrong with flirting, all right, every so often.
- You're trying to have a scare, a kill, something every so often.
- We, we have found some ancient texts preserved in weird ways every so often.
- You know, it would flare up every so often, but she stayed mad about it through all eight years.
- So what they do to save their own skin, which is what he's doing is, is you know, they, they genuflect every so often.
- I'm changing phones all the time and having to search for those little SIM tools just pushes me over the edge every so often.
Examples
-
I play a video game every so often, every night after I'm done my work, of course.
-
And every so often I'd go to the hospital for a checkup.
Academic text (2016) -
And then every so often some big idea happens, but it might be one person.
-
We all need to take a step back every so often, think twice, and post once.
Blog text (4) -
But every so often a face comes along the camera falls in love with.
-
Perhaps it's necessary to have a brief systems check every so often, depending on housing conditions.
Academic text (2007) -
I find myself even now reading it every so often to refresh my mind.
Blog text (2) -
Once every so often, all the farmers in the valley gather together.
-
Mona and I, we... run into each other every so often at the farmer's market.
-
Every so often, I like to take a break from work and relax at the park.
Synonyms
451
1.0
Happens sometimes but not often
438
2.0
Happens sometimes but not often
427
1.6
Sometimes, but not very often
285
1.0
Happens sometimes but not very often
267
1.4
Happens sometimes but not regularly
137
2.0
Sometimes, not very often
79
1.7
It happens sometimes but not very often
73
2.0
Happens sometimes but not regularly
54
2.3
Happens sometimes but not very often
16
5.0
Happening only sometimes
15
6.0
In a way that stops and starts at irregular times
13
6.5
Happening only sometimes and not regularly
Not happening often
Antonyms
How Often
Surface Forms
Morphology
The expression's meaning ('occasionally') is directly recoverable from its constituents: 'often' signals frequency and 'every' gives that frequency an intermittent, regular-interval reading; 'so' functions as a light degree word and does not block compositional interpretation. Because all parts are high-frequency and combine in a predictable way, a B1 learner who knows the individual words will very likely infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Every so often may come from old speech where so meant 'that amount', so people would say something happened 'every so', that is, after that same amount of time. That's why every so often means 'from time to time' or 'occasionally'.