Continuous verb forms with Always
We can use “always”, “continually” and other similar words with a continuous form to mean “very often”
- John’s always losing his keys.
- Mrs Smith is wonderful. She‘s always giving people vegetables and flowers from her garden.
- I’m forever seeing Mary on the bus these days.
- My dog‘s continually escaping from the garden.
The structure is used to talk about things which are unexpected or unplanned.
Compare:
- I always meet my husband at the station on Fridays after work
- (a regular, planned arrangement)
- We‘re always meeting Bill and Florence in the supermarket.
- (unplanned, accidental meeting – a coincidence)
- Our English teacher always organised monthly trips to the theatre.
- (Planned, regular)
- Our parents were always organising surprise picnics and trips to the coast.
- (unexpected, irregular)
It is also used for unexpected actions that are surprising, annoying or frustrating.
- Philip and Glenn are always arriving late to class.
- (which is annoying because the class is disrupted when they arrive)
- My son is always leaving his dirty socks on the bathroom floor.
- (annoying and frustrating)
- Diana‘s always forgetting where she has parked her car, so we usually get home late.