Often or oft? What's the difference between them? (linguistic question)

Often is used more often. :P Hehe

Edit: But if you say "oft", people will usually understand that you mean often. It's clearer to say often though :)

If you wanna say multiple times or repeatedly I would go with often.
I didn't even know oft is a word in english as well... It does howewer exist in german and means often.

Not a native speaker myself but I know oft is an archaic form of often. Nowadays it's highly unlikely to hear it in casual conversation but it's still being used occasionally, mostly by news outlets.
If you happen to hear it it's usually followed by something that signals duration or repetition such as "oft repeating"

At least that's my understanding of it.

In terms of speaking English as in London (don't know about anywhere else). Oft is almost never used in conversation, it's more of an old way of saying often.

Afik oft is only used in some word combinations. For the rest of the time it is often.

Oft is basically archaic, and seldom used. Much like the word opine for having an opinion, it effectively means the same thing but has slightly different contextual usage. For example one could say this: I opine these words are less oft used than they were historically. The non-archaic phrasing for this could instead be: It is my opinion that these words are used less often than they were historically.

I'm no linguist or even an English major at all, so I can't get into too many nuanced details here, I just read a lot. lol

And where are hidden giveaway ? :)

You all got germanys go signal for using our words!

I was able to cope with the Kindergarden thingy just fine when we learned that in our english classes, putting it off as a one time mishap.
Years later i was surprised out of my mind learning that americans use words like Mishmash or Doppelganger.
And it does´nt end! Most recently on PCGamer or RPS somebody went on about Wimmelbilder..

Need new name for your cellphone/mobile? We call it a "handy" XD

I just now asked leo.org about oft. It says that it also is used in English, but it's old school. Honestly I have never heard it in English anyway. So I guess we as Germans only use oft in German. Just stick to often ;)

"oft"
adverb
archaic or literary form of often.
"an oft-quoted tenet"

Done. Why everyone is using their own personal experiences over the actual definition to explain is beyond me. It just makes things more confusing for non-English speakers.