{"id":73,"date":"2014-09-24T21:11:51","date_gmt":"2014-09-24T11:11:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/?p=73"},"modified":"2017-03-04T12:43:39","modified_gmt":"2017-03-04T01:43:39","slug":"the-difference-between-continuous-and-continual","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/journal\/notes\/the-difference-between-continuous-and-continual\/","title":{"rendered":"The difference between continuous and continual"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n TLDR: Continuous<\/em> means something that’s going on without interruption (like Earth rotating). Continual<\/em> means something that happens again and again without long pauses in between (a tap dripping).\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

While these two words might seem to mean the same thing, their definitions actually overlap less frequently than you might imagine.<\/p>\n

continuous (adjective)\u2014unbroken entity; without exception or interruption<\/p>\n

\n We need to edit the footage because it was recorded in one continuous take.<\/em><\/p>\n

The continuous advance of the enemy forces was marked upon the map.<\/em><\/p>\n

The patient was suffering from continuous pain in the lower back.<\/em>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

continual (adjective)\u2014a series of actions or events that recur frequently; without interruptions<\/p>\n

\n The fortress fell after a night of continual bombardments from the infantry.<\/em><\/p>\n

The experiment was delayed due to continual blackouts.<\/em><\/p>\n

Patricia suffered continual bouts of coughing on Sunday.<\/em>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As you can see, both continuous<\/em> and continual<\/em> share the meaning ‘without interruption’. However, I personally feel that continuous<\/em> sounds better when used in this context. In comparison, continual<\/em> is more usually synonymous with an event recurring frequently with only short interruptions rather than without any interruptions at all.<\/p>\n

Another point which separates these two terms is that continuous<\/em> can be used in reference to space as well as time. For example:<\/p>\n

\n Hadrian’s Wall created a single continuous barrier from Segedunum to Bowness-on-Solway.<\/em> (Space)<\/p>\n

The couple have been in a firm and continuous relationship for five years.<\/em> (Time)\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Though it might be a bit tricky to determine which term to use, just remember that continual<\/em> refers to a series of frequently recurring events\u2014such as a day being peppered by showers or storms\u2014and continuous<\/em> refers to something that appears to go on without any interruption\u2014such as water flow from your tap (or most speeches by your principal at school assemblies).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

They both derive from the same word but don’t mean exactly the same thing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":500,"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73\/revisions\/500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}