English grammar

[Anonymous]

What's the grammatical construction to express feelings about another person's annoying habits?

 

[RonBee]

What's the grammatical construction to express feelings about another person's annoying habits?

I don't think it's really a question of grammar. It's more a question of usage, or style.

How do you tell somebody he is annoying you? It depends on how polite you want to be.

1) Stop that!
2) Please stop doing that. It annoys me.
3) Would you please stop doing that? It's very distracting.

As you can see, there is a variety of ways to say the same thing (as usual).

8)

 

[Tdol]

It might be the continuous form with 'always':
He's always phoning me in the middle of the night.
;-)

 

[RonBee]

Eh?

It might be the continuous form with 'always':
He's always phoning me in the middle of the night.
;-)

That could be seen as an expression of annoyance, depending on context: "He's always phoning me in the middle of the night. It's aggravating." In any case, does that form apply more than another might?

8)

 

[Tdol]

No, but it is commonly taught as an expression of annoyance, although it has wider implications and can be various forms of emphasis. ;-)

 

[RonBee]

No, but it is commonly taught as an expression of annoyance, although it has wider implications and can be various forms of emphasis. ;-)

By that do you mean "the continuous form with'always" or do you mean the sentence "He's always phoning me in the middle of the night"?

(Sorry to be so dense, but that has been bugging me.)

The original question:
"What's the grammatical construction to express feelings about another person's annoying habits?"

There isn't really one grammatical tense that is solely or primarily used to express annoyance, is there?

8)

 

[Tdol]

No, there isn't, but the always + ing form is commonly, but not exclusively, used to denote annoyance. I guessed that was what the poster was looking for. ;-)

 

[RonBee]

What about "What you're doing is annoying me"? What form is that (grammatically)?

8)

 

[Tdol]

It's the present continuous being used in its normal way. The always +ing form is taught as a form because the logic of always and the progressive form is contradictory. It doesn't imply at alll that there aren't other ways of expressing annoyance. However, the student coming across this form might find it confusing in its logic, hence its inclusion in many coursebooks at intermediate level and beyond. ;-)

 

[RonBee]

Thanks, TDOL.

 

[Tdol]

;-)