[Grammar] How often have you been spending money this week?

[englishhobby]

Yes, I understand that the question in the title is a bit strange, but if someone wanted to know how many times another person has been at the shops and bought something, would it be correct and natural to use the present perfect continuous? To put it in other way, do we use "how often" in questions with the present perfect progressive?
1. How often have you been spending money this week?
2. How often have you been shopping this week?

 

[emsr2d2]

Sentence 2 is fine. Sentence 1 is grammatically correct but very unlikely to be heard/needed. People don't count the number of times they spend money! More likely would be something like "How much [money] have you spent this week?"

Bear in mind, though, that even sentence 2 is an odd question to ask someone. "How often" requires an answer such as "twice a week" or "every three days". Surely what you actually want to know is "How many times have you been shopping this week?"

 

[jutfrank]

I'll repeat what emsr2d2 has already said: The answer to your question is no. You need to use how many times, not how often. Furthermore, you need to use present perfect simple, not continuous.

How many times have you been shopping this week?

Be careful here—the sentence above is not present perfect continuous. The -ing is from the verb go shopping.

 

[englishhobby]

I'll repeat what emsr2d2 has already said: The answer to your question is no. You need to use how many times, not how often. Furthermore, you need to use present perfect simple, not continuous.

How many times have you been shopping this week?

Be careful here—the sentence above is not present perfect continuous. The -ing is from the verb go shopping.

That's a really helpful comment (about the present perfect, and not using the present continuous).
So, it is not possible to say "How many times have you been doing it?" (using the present perfect continuous), right?

 

[jutfrank]

So, it is not possible to say "How many times have you been doing it?" (using the present perfect continuous), right?

I won't say 'not possible', but that's basically right, yes. There can be exceptions but I don't think those are going to help, so don't worry about them.

With present perfect continuous, the ideal question word is how long. With present perfect simple, it's how many times. With present simple, it's how often.