Questions & Answers about D'habitude, nous mangeons à midi.
I thought adverbs of frequency go after the verb. Why is d'habitude at the very beginning of the sentence?
While short adverbs like souvent (often) or toujours (always) usually go right after the conjugated verb, longer phrases like d'habitude (usually) can easily go at the beginning or end of a sentence to set the scene. You could say Nous mangeons d'habitude à midi, but putting it at the start is very common and natural!
What does d'habitude literally mean?
It literally translates to "of habit". It combines the preposition de (of) and the noun habitude (habit), with the "e" dropping out because habitude starts with a silent "h". Saying "of habit" is the standard French way to say "usually".
Why is there an "e" in mangeons? Shouldn't the nous ending just be -ons?
You are right that the standard ending is -ons. However, for verbs ending in "-ger" like manger (to eat), if we just added -ons, the "g" followed by an "o" would make a hard "g" sound (like in "go"). To keep the soft "g" sound (like the "s" in "measure"), French requires us to keep the "e" before the -ons.
Do we always use à to say "at" a certain time?
Yes! When you want to say that something happens "at" a specific time on the clock, you use the preposition à. Here, à midi means "at noon". You would also use it for hours, like à huit heures (at eight o'clock).
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