humane and human, continuous and continual

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

Teachers, I have another question, thank you for your clear explanation.
How can we distinguish between
1,humane and human
2,continuous and continual .
Thank you very much.

2

Hi,

1,humane and human The first suggests compassionate and the second refers to us as people.

2,continuous and continual Both suggest ‘not stopping’ but ‘continual’ suggests both not stopping and also irritating.

Alan

3

The distinction between continual and continuous is usually described thus:

  • Continual: happening at regular intervals and going on forever;

  • Continuous: going on without intervals - but it may go on for any length of time, short or long, it may stop.

  • His continual conquest of new territory will eventually make him more powerful than we are (last year he conquered Asia, this year Gaul: he keeps conquering new provinces at regular intervals, and it doesn’t seem as if he were going to stop).

  • In one continuous swoop of his pole, he kicked down all the children standing to his left and right (he swooped the pole all around him without ever stopping in between; it didn’t go on forever, though).