Page 400 - Practical English Usage 3ed - Michael Swan, Oxford

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Often is mostly used for habitual behaviour, to mean 'a lot of times on different occasions'. To say 'a lot of times on one occasion', we normally use another expression (e.g. a lot oftimes, several times, keep ...ing). Compare:
I often fell in love when I was younger.
I fell several times yesterday when I was skiing. OR I kept/aUing yesterday . ..
(NOT I tt/ten feEl yesfertkty ...)
Note that often has two common pronunciations, with and without t: /'nfan/ and /'nftan/.
For the position of often and other adverbs of indefinite frequency. see 24.
older English verb forms
The English of a few hundred years ago was different in many ways from modern English - grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and spelling have all changed greatly since Shakespeare's time. Some of the most striking differences are in the way verbs are used. Older English had distinct second- person singular verb forms ending in -st, with a corresponding second-person singular pronoun thou (object form thee, possessives thy, thine). There were also third-person singular verb forms ending in -th, and ye could be used as a second-person plural pronoun.
Tell me what thou knowest How can I help thee? Where thy master gaeth, there goest thou also.
Oh come, all ye faithful.
Older forms of be included second-person singular art and wert. I fear thou art sick. Wert thou at work today?
Questions and negatives were originally made without do; later, forms with and without do (including affirmative forms with do) were both common.
Came you by sea or by land? Be not afraid.
They know not what they do. Then he did take my hand and kiss it. Simple tenses were often used in cases where modem English has progressive forms.
We go not out today, for it ralneth.
Subjunctives (see 567) were more widely used than in modern English.
If she be here, then tell her I wait her pleasure.
Inversion (see 302-303) was more common, and infinitives and past participles could come later in a clause than in modern English.
Now are we lost indeed.
Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended. (Shakespeare) And she me caught in her arms long and small
and therewithal so sweetly did me kiss
and softly said 'Dear heart, how like you this?' (Wyatt)
Some of these forms were still used in 19th-century and early 20th-century literature (particularly poetry) long after they had died out of normal usage. Modern writers of historical novels, films or plays often make their characters use some of these older forms in order to give a 'period' flavour to the language. And the forms also survive in certain contexts where tradition
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