EXERCISE

Tap your forehead three times with your index finger.

Do it now.

That’s continual action.

Take that same finger and slowly drag it across your forehead from left to right.

Done?

That, my friend, was continuous action.

MORE

When you perform a continual action you do it again and again. Something starts and stops, however briefly, and it does so over and over. Repeatedly striking a nail with a hammer is a fine example. So is tossing darts at a board for three hours at a pub.

When you do something continuously, though, you do it without stopping, even for a moment. A skier moves down a slope in a single, non-stop swoosh. A ballerina glides across the stage in what appears to be one long movement.

Continual and continuous action are very different things.

Mind you, you can always get creative with your word choice, like when you want to exaggerate:

“My mother-in-law can talk continuously for hours—the woman doesn’t even stop to breathe!”

That can’t be true, even if it’s a good dig at the old monster-in-law. Be proud when you indulge in this kind of word play because you’re well on your way to becoming not just a smarty pants, but a poet.

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