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Questions tagged [progressive-aspect]

The progressive aspect expresses the dynamic quality of actions that are in progress.

The progressive aspect expresses the dynamic quality of actions that are in progress while the continuous aspect expresses the state of the subject that is continuing the action. For instance, "Tom is reading" can express dynamic activity: "Tom is reading a book" - i.e. right now (progressive aspect), or Tom's current state: "Tom is reading for a degree" - i.e. Tom is a student (continuous aspect). The aspect can often be ambiguous; "Tom is reading Ulysses" may describe his current activity (it's in his hand), or the state of having started, but not yet finished, the book (it's in his bag).

185 questions
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Manipulativeness of the progressive aspect in "to be wondering if"

I am around a group of people who, for whatever reason, have developed the habit of talking odd tenses. I'm no English or grammar expert but here is what I mean. Instead of saying "Can I borrow your car?", they might say " I was wondering if I…
trainjumper
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Overuse of progressive forms

Though not a native speaker I have the impression that some native speakers overuse progressive verb forms. An example I have just read: My cat is gaining too much weight, how often should I be feeding her? I would have said " how often should I…
rogermue
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Is this a valid way of implementing a continuous element into the sentence regarding "ashamed"?

"He should be ashamed to be laughing at his friends with the bullies." I am quite aware that usually and most of the time the adjective ashamed is followed by "of doing", yet can that be substituted with "to be doing" in order to imply a progressive…
user79773
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Using "which" and "have" in questions

Is this sentence correct? Which solution we have planned? OR Which solution did we have planned? OR Which solution did we plan? I'm discussing about a technical issue and my question is just a way to start discussing the solution we have…
DP78
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Can a Progressive Verb Replace "Which"?

Let's say I have the following sentence: Yesterday the stock market crashed, which resulted in social collapse. Is it grammatically correct to change the above sentence to the following form? Yesterday the stock market crashed, resulting in…
Max
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Progressive 'have'

Consider these two sentences, please: We had a strange woman come to the door selling pictures. We had a man singing to us as we sat in the restaurant having our meal. Can I use the progressive form of the verb 'have' in the above two examples.…
Mr. X
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How can "ing" be used without adding while or after?

I heard this sentence while watching How I Met Your Mother, I am surprised you don't trip over your balls getting out of bed. So my question is how can "-ing" be used with the verb "get" without also adding "after" or "while"? Don't you think the…
kuldeep sharma
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