[Grammar] Can we use "always" with the present perfect continuous?

[Mike MC]

Is it OK, for example, to say:

Since the beginning of the meeting, he's been always interrupting me!

 

[GoesStation]

Always doesn't work, but the sentence would be okay with constantly.

 

[Mike MC]

Always doesn't work, but the sentence would be okay with constantly.

It was just an example. Can we use always with the present perfect continuous?

 

[Barb_D]

Not really.
You have been Xing (constantly - if you must, but "always been Xing" suggests it was constant.)
You have always Xed.
You are always/constantly Xing.

You have been standing up for me for years.
You have always stood up for me.
You are always/constantly standing up for me.

Note that "am/is/are always Xing!" is often an expression of annoyance.
You are always interrupting me!
He is always running late.
I am always messing things up!

 

[Mike MC]

Not really.
You have been Xing (constantly - if you must, but "always been Xing" suggests it was constant.)
You have always Xed.
You are always/constantly Xing.

You have been standing up for me for years.
You have always stood up for me.
You are always/constantly standing up for me.

Note that "am/is/are always Xing!" is often an expression of annoyance.
You are always interrupting me!
He is always running late.
I am always messing things up!

How about this one:

I've always been looking for other people's approval.

Johnny Vegas

And if it's alright, when can we use always with the present perfect continuous? What makes it different from my first example?

 

[Mike MC]

And here's another example from Collins English Dictionary:

She has always been going around the motorway in completely the wrong direction.

What do you think?

 

[GoesStation]

And here's another example from Collins English Dictionary:


What do you think?

The Collins automatic search engine found that in The Sun, a newspaper that is not known for careful writing. Moreover, the paper may have been quoting a non-native English speaker.

 

[Mike MC]

The Collins automatic search engine found that in The Sun, a newspaper that is not known for careful writing. Moreover, the paper may have been quoting a non-native English speaker.

How about the quote above from Johnny Vegas? And the many examples I found in COCA and Google Books? One more example:

In my company, for instance, we've always been trying to prove a real business model...

Inc. magazine

 

[GoesStation]

You'll find lots of careless writing in print. The Inc. extract is but one example. Is it a quote from a spoken statement? It doesn't make much sense; you can't "prove" a business model. If it's a quoted utterance, the person may have lost track of what they were saying, something which happens quite often.

The Johnny Vegas quotation is natural, casual speech.

 

[Barb_D]

Mike, is your goal to write so that most people find your writing style natural? Or is your goal to prove a point that something is "grammatical"?

If it is the first, then avoid using "always" in that structure.
If it is the second, then yes, it's grammatical.

 

[Mike MC]

The Johnny Vegas quotation is natural, casual speech.

At least you found one of my examples natural!
Now would you mind letting me know what's the difference between this one and other examples?

 

[GoesStation]

You're better off simply avoiding the usage rather than trying to understand which cases are or are not natural.

 

[Barb_D]

Casual SPEECH is full of ungrammatical things or things that are technically grammatical but are a bit of a mess.

When you write, you have time to plan and time to review and edit.