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We can use the continuous aspect of tenses to show that some action was repeated many times it may have irritated us like " she was always taking my things" therefore, could we say using present perfect continuous " she has been calling you 5 times"?

apaderno
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Bob
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  • Note, this shows "repeated many times" in a vague way. Naming a specific number of times makes it unnecessary. – Andy Bonner Feb 13 '24 at 16:10
  • In fact, maybe this is the key to your other questions that combine continuous tenses with specific events, like "I was working there for two hours when I saw her." These continuous tenses work well for vague statements, and adding the specific "two hours" does the opposite. As these many questions and their comments show, it's possible to find a use for them, but it might be more common to leave the specifics out of the continuous use, or to choose a different tense to use with specifics. – Andy Bonner Feb 13 '24 at 16:14
  • Note, this shows "repeated many times" in a vague way. Naming a specific number of times makes it unnecessary. – meaning it's a mistake or not? – Bob Feb 13 '24 at 16:17
  • Yes, anouk is correct, this would be non-idiomatic and unlikely. ("Mistake" is not necessarily the right word for these situations; no rules have been broken; it's not like saying "She has been calling you times 5," which breaks standard sentence order and allows potential misunderstanding.) I could imagine saying "My hand is tired; I've been folding 1,000 origami cranes." That's almost but not quite the same thing, but it's ok. – Andy Bonner Feb 13 '24 at 16:29
  • No, but you can do this: She was always calling me at the office. – Lambie Feb 13 '24 at 16:58

1 Answers1

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No, it is either: " she's been calling me" or " she has called five times". Use present perfect simple to express how much/how many.

anouk
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