I bet you said “three times” just as most people, including native speakers, say. Surprise, surprise, there is another word you can use. True, some think that it’s old-fashioned and yet it still appears in books and articles. Therefore there’s no harm in learning THRICE, which follows on nicely from “once” and “twice”.

Probably you now expect me to give you something for “4 times”. Sorry but my bag of surprises is empty for today. Instead, I will show you 2 common mistakes:

• I’ve been to an English language course thrice times.
• She phoned me twice times last night.

These are correct:

• I’ve been to an English language course thrice.
• She phoned me twice last night.

How about you? Are there situations where you could have used the word THRICE? Write in and let me know!