Once in a while / very often

Olá pessoal

2 dúvidas...

1.Estudando sobre a Negative Advervial expressions que requerem uso invertido ( forma de interrogativa) para transmitir emphasis. Um livro diz que as expressoes " once in a while" e "very often" também são possíveis de usar nesta inversão o que me causou muita estranhesa.
2. Um nativo (não soube responder a dúvida acima) disse que não se usa estas inversões hoje em dia, são totalmente arcaicas.

Para ilustrar minhas dúvidas ...

Very often do I see her around here.
Once in a while does she go to the gym.

Agradeço a atenção de todos

APRESENTAÇÃO PESSOAL EM INGLÊS
Nesta aula, a professora Camila Oliveira ensina como você deve se preparar para fazer uma apresentação pessoal profissional em inglês. O conteúdo dessa aula ajudará você a aproveitar melhor as oportunidades no ambiente corporativo. ACESSAR AULA
3 respostas
Ordenar por: Data
PPAULO 6 49 1.3k
I understand that the inversion per se would work like this:

(usual way) very often I see her around here.
I see her around here very often. (looks like it´s the inverting "very often - I see her...)

(usual way) She goes to the gym once in a while.
Once in a while does she go to the gym.
(like the "once in a while" took a life of its own and inverted the second sentence)

I think it seems valid, anyway I don´t have the details to elaborate. It´s the first time I have seem the topic as it is. But...interesting anyway.
I must have bumped into expressions like that and not realized, I think people don´t use it much, at least until the intermediate level.
Certainly ESL students would be prone to use the usual way, but that is not to say that is the other way is wrong (perhaps it would somehow put some emphasis to it).
PPAULO 6 49 1.3k
Let me tell you a secret. Books are like driving schools, they teach you things that will (or that have some probability) of coming up in the text.
Sometimes the probability is small, but you have to study even so. That´s why you landed here, on the Forum, we will deal with the topic even if in the streets (the everyday language, I mean) you are not prone to find a sentence.
Anyway, congrats, it´s a good question to ask.
Bryan Philpott 2 22 127
Yes, "once in a while" and "very often" can be and are used this way, but they sound pretty lofty in most situations. In fact, I have only ever used these two expressions in particular to emphasize how infrequently something happens:

"Not very often do you see a dog and a cat get along so well."

"Only once in a while will you see such companionship."

To me this phrasing feels like it should only be used when there is something truly remarkable and/or profound in the observation. The two examples you gave would probably never be said that way, since there is not usually something markedly odd (in most contexts) about someone's gym habits. You should just say "I see her around here quite often" or "Once in a while she'll go to the gym".

If you google "only once in a while do you see" or "only once in a while will you see" with the quotation marks, you will find more examples of people using this particular inversion.