Habits and annoying behaviour: will / would, be always + -ing, keep (on) + -ing

• In professional environments, we often need to talk about recurring habits, particularly those that irritate us or disrupt teamwork. We use specific structures to express these patterns of behaviour vividly.
• Structure
• Function
• Example
• will / would + infinitive
• Predictable annoying behaviour, characteristic habits
• Mark will interrupt everyone in meetings.
• be always + -ing
• Continuous repetition of an irritating action
• She is always complaining about her workload.
• keep (on) + -ing
• Persistent repetition despite requests to stop
• He keeps on missing deadlines in Boston.
• Remember
• Use 'will' for present annoying habits and 'would' for past annoying habits.
• Use 'be always + -ing' to emphasize frequent, often annoying repetition.
• Use 'keep (on) + -ing' to show persistence in an irritating action.
• Examples
• My manager will check my desk every single morning in Chicago.
• When we worked in London, he would arrive late to every briefing.
• They are always forwarding unnecessary emails across the office.
• Common mistakes
• He always complains about the budget.
• He is always complaining about the budget.
• She keep on interrupting during our calls.
• She keeps on interrupting during our calls.

Complete the sentences

• Whenever we had a project in Seattle, Mark (would) ____ constantly undermine my ideas.
• Why (be always) ____ questioning my financial reports in Denver?
• Laura (keep on) ____ criticizing my marketing strategy in New York.
• During our tenure in Bristol, David (would) ____ bypass my authority completely.
• The regional director (will) ____ micromanage every detail of our operations in Austin.
• My colleagues (be always) ____ starting turf wars over office space in Miami.

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