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John has persuaded me to keep off alcohol many times in the past year, but I haven't decided yet to give it up.

In the sentence presented above, is persuade used correctly? I don't think so, because "John has persuaded me" means he's succeeded in persuading me to keep off alcohol.

In order to make it correct, I think I should change it to

John has been persuading me to keep off alcohol in the past year, but I haven't decided yet to give it up.

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    You are correct. You could also use has been trying to persuade.
    – Kate Bunting
    Jan 8, 2022 at 9:42
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    @KateBunting - one thing that grates on my British ear is hearing people say that someone 'convinced' someone else to do something, when I would prefer to use 'persuade'.
    – Michael Harvey
    Jan 8, 2022 at 11:14
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    I think colloquial to talk someone out of [doing something] more easily carries the sense of on one / several occasions without necessarily implying any permanent behaviour change. And there's no question but that John has talked me out of getting drunk many times in the past year only implies on certain occasions (it's ambiguous whether speaker got drunk on other occasions, but it's kinda implied that he will get drunk again in the future unless John really doubles down on his role here).
    – FumbleFingers
    Jan 8, 2022 at 13:24

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