huì (会) for things that occur(ed) occasionally?

[ChineseStudent24]

Hi

 

I'm currently studying a short story in Chinese (for beginners) and I came across the sentence

他有时候会开车带她回家。

 

Can someone explain to me please, what '会' means in this context?

I've found another example like this here:

https://www.digmandarin.com/sometimes-in-chinese.html

"这段时间时而会下很大的雨"

This was translated as "At this period of time, there would be heavy rain sometimes. "

 

So, my question is, what exactly is the grammatical rule here? Can '会' be used together with 'sometimes'/'regularly'/... in order to describe 'used to' in past tense? Does '会' always denote past tense? Or did I get it completely wrong?

 

Thank you in advance for your answers!!

[889]

他有时候会开车带她回家

"Sometimes he can drive her home."

 

他有时候开车带她回家。

"Sometimes he drives her home."

 

Even in English it's a subtle distinction, slightly emphasizing the uncertainty.

 

Remember that in Chinese, both spoken and written, you sometimes add or omit a character or two for no other good reason than to maintain the natural rhythm of the sentence.

 

(I might change that "would" to "could" in your second example.)

 

[anonymoose]

would

[Dawei3]

On 3/11/2022 at 2:55 PM, 889 said:

you sometimes add or omit a character or two for no other good reason than to maintain the natural rhythm of the sentence.

This is an ability I'd like to have, i.e., when to add or eliminate a character.  Even knowing when to use 会  versus 会议 for meeting is a challenge for me.