mingtoo

[Homework]2011-03-15 How to Use a Word

The word for today of March 15th is continual, spell C-O-N-T-I-N-U-A-L. Continual is an adjective that means continuing in definitely in time without interruption. It can also mean recurring insteady usually rapid succession.
Here is the word used in a sentence.
The continual braying of the car alarm outside made it very difficute for us to foucs on our work.
Since the mid 19th century many grammarian have drawn a distinction between the words "continual" and "continuous".
They insist that continual should only mean occurring at regular intervolves as in the teacher was annoyed by their continual interruptions.
Whereas continuous should be used to mean continuing without interruption as in the batteries provided power for up to 5 hours of continuous use.
This distinction over looks the fact that the word continual is the older one and was used to with both meaning for centuries before continuous appeared on a scene.
The prescribe sense of continuous became established only in the 19th century and never succeed in compeletly driving out the equivalant sense of continual.
Today, continual is the more likely of the two to mean recurring, but it also continuous to be used as it has been since the 14th century with the meaning without interruption.