Can "sometimes" be used with progressive
Sometimes I drink beer
Sometimes I am driving very fast
With a continuous tense does it mean that the event happens less often than with a simple tense
asked Jan 13, 2018 at 14:14
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Sometimes when I am driving fast, .....– Raj 33Commented Jan 13, 2018 at 14:41
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You'd need a somewhat contrived context to make the continuous verb form acceptable in your example: I have this dream every night where I'm driving to work in my car, but I know I'm going to be late. Sometimes I'm driving very fast, but usually I'm just stuck in slow-moving traffic. For most "normal" contexts, using the continuous verb only occurs in "Indian English", and would usually be considered "invalid" to mainstream native speakers.– FumbleFingersCommented Jan 13, 2018 at 15:32
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@FumbleFingers I'm an Indian and I don't use that way.– Raj 33Commented Jan 13, 2018 at 17:35
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@Raj 33: Good for you! But are you implying that you never hear other people using continuous verb forms like that? Here in the UK, it's a very strong indicator that the speaker isn't a native Anglophone and/or that he's much more likely to come from India than anywhere else.– FumbleFingersCommented Jan 13, 2018 at 17:39
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1...having said that, I think sometimes IE is great! In my days as a software technician I was always glad that IE introduced us to prepone as the opposite of postpone, and as a Brit I'm thoroughly signed up to the slang usage Innit, which I'm pretty sure was popularised here by people who originally came from India.– FumbleFingersCommented Jan 13, 2018 at 18:53
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1 Answer
Sometimes, never, always are generally used with the simple present for general statements: I sometimes drink beer, I never drink beer, I always drink beer instead of wine.
These adverbs go with the simple present or another tense expressing generalities. For example:
I'm always drinking beer at 6:00 pm on Friday afternoons. It is still a general statement even if you do use the progressive.
OR "He's always losing his temper with me."
But the adverb must be matched to a verb.
OR "He was sometimes playing on Saturdays instead of Sundays."
Therefore, "Sometimes, I am driving fast" on its own is not right: "I sometimes drive fast." or "Sometimes, I drive fast".
"Sometimes, when I'm driving fast, I forget everything else". In this example, the sometimes modifies the verb forget. So, it is grammatical.
