When ‘usually’ is unusual!

Posted by Pak Guru on March 15th, 2016 | 0 comments | biasanya, IELTS, Indo English, likes and dislikes, Part 1, personal information, speaking, vocabulary

In my spare time I usually go out with my friends.

This is grammatically correct. However, if you’re talking about something you do regularly or habitually then present simple tense is all you need:

• In my spare time I go out with my friends.

 Indonesians will feel a need to translate ‘biasanya’, but in English present simple tense already carries the meaning of usually, and so usually is redundant in a sentence like this.
Only use usually when you want to make a contrast between something you do habitually, and something that you do, or have to do, because of exceptional or unforeseen circumstances:

• In my spare time I usually go out with my friends, but today I have my IELTS interview.