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Hoister Posted 15 years ago
Grammar

Josh screw/ was screwing up constantly

J.D.: Okay, here's what happened. I mean, Josh was screwing up constantly. It's not like I forced him to quit. I just don't think it's my fault he quit.

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Background: Josh was a med student and JD is his teacher. JD was fed up with Josh's mistakes and told down to him. Disencouraged, Josh decided to quit. In this scene, JD was desperately finding any co-worker for confirmation of his action.

Hi, I'd like to know if "Josh constantly screwed up" is also correct.
  

Top answer

It does not work as well. The speaker is stressing both the ongoing activity and his heightened feeling about it.

— Mister Micawber

  • It does not work as well.
  • The speaker is stressing both the ongoing activity and his heightened feeling about it.
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4 Answers
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It does not work as well. The speaker is stressing both the ongoing activity and his heightened feeling about it.
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HoisterI'd like to know if "Josh constantly screwed up" is also correct.
There is nothing wrong with it grammatically but the use of the continuous tense emphasizes the repetition.
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Thanks Mister and Louise.

So, the continuous tense can stress the repetition and the annoying feelings, right?

If I say "He screwed up constantly", is it totally wrong or it only means a one time event, instead of its repetitive action ?
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It can't mean only one event, since context is 'constantly'. The difference and correctness has already been dealt with in our previous posts.
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