Continuous and progressive aspects

The continuous and progressive aspects (abbreviated CONT and PROG) are grammatical aspects that express incomplete action ("to do") or state ("to be") in progress at a specific time: they are non-habitual, imperfective aspects.

Not to be confused with Continuative aspect.

In the grammars of many languages the two terms are used interchangeably. This is also the case with English: a construction such as "He is washing" may be described either as present continuous or as present progressive. However, there are certain languages for which two different aspects are distinguished. In Chinese, for example, progressive aspect denotes a current action, as in "he is getting dressed", while continuous aspect denotes a current state, as in "he is wearing fine clothes".

As with other grammatical categories, the precise semantics of the aspects vary from language to language, and from grammarian to grammarian. For example, some grammars of Turkish count the -iyor form as a present tense;[1] some as a progressive tense;[2] and some as both a continuous (nonhabitual imperfective) and a progressive (continuous non-stative) aspect.[3]

Continuous versus progressive

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).

Continuous and progressive in various languages

Unless otherwise indicated, the following languages treat continuous and progressive aspects the same, in which case the term continuous is used to refer to both.

English

Use

See also: Uses of English verb forms § Present progressive

The continuous aspect is constructed by using a form of the copula, "to be", together with the present participle (marked with the suffix -ing).[4] It is generally used for actions that are occurring at the time in question, and does not focus on the larger time-scale. For example, the sentence "Andrew was playing tennis when Jane called him." indicates what Andrew was doing when Jane called him, but does not indicate for how long Andrew played, nor how often he plays; for that, the simple past would suffice: "Andrew played tennis three hours every day for several years."

Salikoko Mufwene[5]^:pp.35–36 contrasts the effect of the progressive form on the meanings of action verbs versus those of lexically stative verbs:

1. [I]t converts events expected to be punctual into longer-lasting, even if transient, states of affairs [e.g., "Nancy is writing a letter"];
2. it [con]versely converts those states of affairs expected to last long (lexical statives) to shorter-lasting / transient states of affairs [e.g., "Tom is living with us"]; and
3. it simply presents those verbs whose denotations are neutral with regard to duration as in process / in (transient) duration [e.g., "The wall is cracking"], though duration is most expected of statives.

Origin

The progressive aspect in English likely arose from two constructions that were used fairly rarely in Old and Early Middle English. The first used a form of beon/wesan (to be/to become) with a present participle (-ende).[6] This construction has an analogous form in Dutch (see below).[7] The second used beon/wesan, a preposition, and a gerund (-unge), and has been variously proposed as being influenced by similar forms in Latin and French[8] or British Celtic, though evidence one way or another is scant.[9] Over the course of the Middle English period, sound shifts in the language meant that the (-ende) participle ending and the (-unge) gerund ending merged into a new ending, (-ing). This change, which was complete in southern England around the late fifteenth century and spread north from there, rendered participles and gerunds indistinguishable. It is at this point that a sudden increase in the use of progressive forms is visible, though they would not take their current form until the eighteenth century.[10][11] Linguist Herbert Schendl has concluded that "with this feature, a polygenetic origin ... seems attractive, and at least the further extension of the progressive is a language-internal development."[12]

Berber

In the Amazigh language, past continuous is formed by using the fixed participle ttugha (original meaning: I forgot); ttugha is added before the verb that is in the present tense. So we have:

Ntta itari: he writes / he is writing

Ntta ttugha itari: he was writing

Present continuous is usually the same as the present tense. But in the Riff variety of Berber, the participle aqqa is added before the verb to form present continuous.

Chinese

Chinese is one family of languages that makes a distinction between the continuous and progressive aspects.

Cantonese

Cantonese has a very regular system for expressing aspects via verb suffixes. 緊 is typically used to express progressive aspect while 住 is used to express continuous aspect. Take the following example:

	Cantonese(Literal English)	English Translation
Progressive	我(I) 著(wear) 緊(PROG) 衫(clothes) 。(.)	I am putting on clothes.
Continuous	我(I) 著(wear) 住(CONT) 衫(clothes) 。(.)	I am wearing clothes.

In the example, the progressive aspect expresses the fact that the subject is actively putting on clothes rather than merely wearing them as in the continuous aspect. This example is useful for showing English speakers the difference between continuous and progressive because "wearing" in English never conveys the progressive aspect. (Instead, "putting on" must be used).

In Cantonese, the progressive marker 緊 can express the continuous aspect as well, depending on the context (so the example above could also mean "I'm wearing clothes" in addition to "I'm putting on clothes"), but in general, the progressive aspect is assumed. In order to emphasize the progressive aspect rather than the continuous, 喺度 (literally meaning "at here") can be used in front of the verb:

我(I) 喺度(at here) 著(wear) 緊(PROG) 衫(clothes) 。(.)

喺度 can also be used without 緊 to indicate the progressive aspect.

Mandarin

Unlike Cantonese, Mandarin does not have a verb suffix for expressing the progressive aspect, but it can use the pre-verbal auxiliary zhèngzài 正在 (or just 在), similar to how Cantonese uses 喺度 in front of the verb. The continuous aspect does have a verb suffix, 著/着 zhe, which is cognate with the Cantonese 住 in this context.

	Mandarin(Literal English)	English Translation
Progressive	我(I) 正在(right now) 穿(wear) 衣服(clothes) 。(.)	I am putting on clothes.
Continuous	我(I) 穿(wear) 著(CONT) 衣服(clothes) 。(.)	I am wearing clothes.

For more information see Chinese grammar § Aspects.

Danish

Danish has several ways of constructing continuous aspect.

• The first is using the form er ved + infinitive ("is at" meaning "in the process of"). For instance han er ved at bygge nyt hus ("he is at to build new house") meaning "he is building a new house". This is similar to the German form using "beim".
• Some verbs are always or default continuous, for instance verbs indicating motion, location or position, such as sidder ("sitting"), står ("standing"), ligger ("lying") or går ("walking"). This means their present tense forms are their continuous forms: Han står dér ("he stands there") means "he is standing over there", and jeg sidder ned ("I sit down"), means "I am sitting". Note this means Danish often has two different verbs when they make sense both continuous and non-continuous - English has only one such fully functional pair remaining, and it happens to share this one with Danish at lægge (sig) ("to lay") and at ligge ("to lie") - "Lay down so you can lie down".
• Using these default continuous verbs together with a non-default continuous verb makes both continuous. This is a form also used in other Germanic languages such as Norwegian and Dutch. For instance: Han står og ryger ("he stands and smokes") means "he is smoking (while standing)".
• Another form is used for motions such as walking, driving or flying. When constructing perfect tense they can be constructed with either 'is' or 'has'. Where 'has' indicates a completed travel, and 'is' indicates a started journey. For instance han er gået ("he is walked") meaning "he has left (on foot)", versus jeg har fløjet meaning "I have flown (at some point in time)".

Dutch

The continuous aspect is commonly used in Dutch, though not as often as in English. There are various methods of forming a continuous:

• One form is the same as in English: zijn (to be) with the present participle, e.g., Het schip is zinkende (The ship is sinking). This form puts stress on the continuous aspect and often gives some dramatic overtone, making it not commonly used.
• The second method is the most common in Dutch. It is formed with zijn, followed by the preposition and definite article aan het and the gerund (verb used as a noun), e.g., Ik ben aan het lezen (literally I am at the reading), meaning I am reading.
• The third method is by using a verb expressing a physical position, like zitten (to sit), staan (to stand), liggen (to lie), followed by te and the infinitive. Examples: Ik zit te lezen (lit. I sit to read), meaning I am reading (while sitting), Ik stond te wachten (lit. I stood to wait), meaning I was waiting (while standing), Zij ligt te slapen (lit. She lies to sleep), meaning She is sleeping (while lying down), Wij lopen te zingen (lit. We walk to sing), meaning We are singing (while walking). When translating into English or another language, the physical position generally isn't mentioned, only the action itself. In English, similar constructions exist but are uncommon and marginally more frequent only in certain dialects, e.g. I sat (there) reading, I stood (there) waiting, etc.
• A fourth method, also available in English, is using zijn (to be) with the adverb and preposition bezig met (busy with) and the gerund, e.g., Ik ben bezig met lezen (lit. I am busy with reading), meaning I am (busy) reading. If there is an object, there are two forms: 1. the gerund is preceded by the neuter article het and followed by the preposition van (of) and the object, e.g. Ik ben bezig met het lezen van deze brief (lit. I am busy with the reading of this letter), meaning I am reading this letter; 2. the object comes before the full infinitive (instead of the gerund), e.g. Ik ben bezig met deze brief te lezen (lit. I am busy with this letter to read), meaning I am reading this letter. This form of the continuous is mostly used for a real (physical) activity. Grammar-wise, it is possible to say zij is bezig te denken (lit. she is busy to think, she is thinking) or hij is bezig te slapen (lit. he is busy to sleep, he is sleeping), but it sounds strange in Dutch. In these cases, other forms of the continuous are generally used, specifically the second method: Zij is aan het denken and hij is aan het slapen.
• A fifth method also involves the use of zijn (to be) with the adverb bezig (busy), this time followed by te and the infinitive, e.g. Ik ben bezig te koken (lit. I am busy to cook), meaning I am cooking. If there is an object, it comes before the verb, e.g. Ik ben bezig aardappelen te koken (lit. I am busy potatoes to cook), meaning I am cooking potatoes. This form is also mainly used for real activities. Zij is bezig te denken and Hij is bezig te slapen are uncommon.
• The sixth method is a special form of the continuous. It implicitly means that the subject is away to do an activity. It uses zijn (to be), followed by the infinitive, e.g., Zij is winkelen (lit. She is shop), meaning She is (away) shopping.

French

French does not have a continuous aspect per se; events that English would describe using its continuous aspect, French would describe using a neutral aspect. Many express what they are doing in French by just using the present tense. That being said, French can express a continuous sense using the periphrastic construction être en train de ("to be in the middle of"); for example, English's "we were eating" might be expressed in French either as nous étions en train de manger (literally "we were in the middle of eating"), or as simply nous mangions ("we ate").

An exception is in relating events that took place in the past: the imperfect has a continuous aspect in relation to the simple (historic) past; e.g. nous mangions quand il frappa à la porte ("we were eating when he knocked at the door"). However, the passé composé is more often used to denote past events with a neutral aspect in a non-narrative context.

It is also possible to use the present participle, e.g. Nous mangeant, il frappait à la porte, or the gerund (Gérondif).

Quebec French often expresses a continuous sense using the periphrastic construction être après (lit. "to be after"); for example, English's "we were eating" might be expressed in Quebec French either as nous étions après manger, or as simply nous mangions (imparfait).

Jèrriais

Formed exactly as in Rhinish German, Jèrriais constructs the continuous with verb êt' (be) + à (preposition) + infinitive. For example, j'têmes à mangi translates as we were eating.

German

There is no continuous aspect in standard German. The aspect can be expressed with gerade (just now, at the moment) as in er liest gerade meaning he is reading. Certain regional dialects, such as those of the Rhineland, the Ruhr Area, and Westphalia, form a continuous aspect using the verb sein (to be), the inflected preposition am or beim (at the or on the), and the neuter noun that is formed from an infinitive. This construction was likely borrowed from Low German or Dutch which use the exact construction to convey the same meaning. For example, ich bin am Lesen, ich bin beim Lesen (literally I am on/at the reading) means I am reading. Known as the rheinische Verlaufsform (roughly Rhinish progressive form), it has become increasingly common in the casual speech of many speakers around Germany through popular media and music, although it is still frowned upon in formal and literary contexts.[13] In Southern Austro-Bavarian, the aspect can be expressed using tun (to do) as an auxiliary with the infinitive of the verb as in er tut lesen for he is reading (cf. English he does reading).

Hawaiian

In Hawaiian, the present tense progressive aspect form ke + verb + nei is very frequently used.

Hindi and Urdu

Hindi and Urdu have a definite progressive/continuous aspect, marked by auxiliaries, for past, present, and future. It is distinguished from the habitual aspect, and is widely used in everyday speech. Like English, it is also used to denote an immediate future action. Hindustani uses the habitual construction for both the stative aspect and the progressive one. For a complete conjugation of the continuous tenses, see Hindustani grammar.

The continuous/progressive aspect is marked by a progressive participle rahā which agrees with the gender and number of the subject and is followed by the copula honā (to be, to happen, to exist, to have) in proper conjugation.[14]

Progressive Participle

Singular		Plural
Masculine	Feminine	Masculine	Feminine
rahā	rahī	rahe	rahī̃

There are three aspects in Hindi/Urdu, Perfective, Habitual and Progressive.[14] Only the 3rd person conjugations are shown in the table below.

Progressive Aspect
Mood	Tense	singular		plural		Translation
		masculine	feminine	masculine	feminine
Indicative	Present	bèṭh rahā hè	bèṭh rahī hè	bèṭh rahe hè̃	bèṭh rahī̃ hè̃	he/she is (in the process of) sitting.
	Past	bèṭh rahā thā	bèṭh rahī thī	bèṭh rahe the	bèṭh rahī̃ thī̃	he/she was (in the process of) sitting.
	Future	bèṭh rahā hogā	bèṭh rahī hogī	bèṭh rahe hõge	bèṭh rahī̃ hõgī	he/she will be (in the process of) sitting.
Presumptive	Present					presumably he/she might be (in the process of) sitting. [currently]
	Past					presumably he/she might have/had been (in the process of) sitting.
	Future					presumably he/she might will be (in the process of) sitting.
Subjunctive	Present	bèṭh rahā ho	bèṭh rahā ho	bèṭh rahe hõ	bèṭh rahī̃ hõ	(hoping) that he/she be (in the process of) sitting. [currently]
	Past	bèṭh rahā hotā	bèṭh rahī hotī	bèṭh rahe hote	bèṭh rahī̃ hotī̃	(hoping) he/she were (in the process of) sitting. [protasis phrase]
	Future	bèṭh rahā hoe	bèṭh rahā hoe	bèṭh rahe hoẽ	bèṭh rahī̃ hoẽ	(hoping) that he/she will be (in the process of) sitting.
Conditional	Present	bèṭh rahā hotā	bèṭh rahī hotī	bèṭh rahe hote	bèṭh rahī̃ hotī̃	he/she would have been (in the process of) sitting. [apodosis phrase]
	Past
	Future	bèṭh rahā hogā	bèṭh rahī hogī	bèṭh rahe hõge	bèṭh rahī̃ hõgī	he/she would be (in the process of) sitting. [apodosis phrase]

Notes:

1. The future and the presumptive mood of Hindi have the same forms for the Progressive aspect. When the context is about the future the copula is assumed to be of the future tense and when the context is of the past, copula is assumed to be of the presumptive mood. The exact detail in the context of the past would tell whether to assume the presumptive present or the presumptive past. For example, "do sāl pehle bèṭh rahā hogā" and "abhī bèṭh rahā hogā." both have the same presumptive part as the table above but do sāl pehle means "two years ago" and abhī means "right now" which makes it clear that the first sentence is in presumptive present and the second sentence is in presumptive past.
2. The verb bèṭhnā in Hindi/Urdu when used with the progressive participle means "the person is in the process to sit" and not is actually already sitting.[15] The translation in the table above talks about the progressive state of sitting from the state of not sitting and not the continued state of sitting. To show the continued state of sitting either the perfective participle progressive form [Perfective Participle + Verbal Adjective Marker (huā) + Copula] is used or [Perfective Participle + Copula] is used. The former translates as "...has/have stayed sitting" and latter as "...is sitting" (progressive). Such continuous forms are not considered as an aspect in itself in Hindi/Urdu since huā is used only to mark verbal adjectives, it has no part in the aspect/tense/mood system.[14]
3. The habitual and the perfective participles of Hindi and Urdu can also be used with the progressive participle to form the progressive forms and the progressive habitual forms.
4. Like many other such for example Finnish, Romanian, and Polish, the conditional form of the verbs in Hindi/Urdu appear twice in a conditional phrase in contrast to many Romance Languages where there are separate forms for the conditional and the past subjunctive.[16] In Hindi/Urdu both the apodosis (main clause) and the protasis (dependant cause) put the verb in the conditional/contrafactual. The past subjunctive and the conditional mood is marked in Hindi/Urdu with the same contrafactual marker.

Icelandic

Icelandic possesses a present continuous aspect much like that found in English. This feature is unique among the Scandinavian languages. It is formed with the copula vera (to be) + að (infinitive marker) + infinite verb. Its usage differs slightly from English, as it generally cannot be used in static contexts, for example standing or sitting, but rather to describe specific activities. The following examples illustrate this phenomenon.

Ég er að borða eplið.

I'm eating the apple.

In contrast with:

Ég stend á borðinu.

I'm standing on the table.

In the second example, the simple present tense is used as it describes a state, standing on the table. The construction *ég er að standa á borðinu is incorrect in Icelandic. In addition this method of constructing the continuous present there exists a second method akin to the one which exists in the other Scandinavian languages, where a present participle ending in -andi is used along with the copula vera. This is a way of using the present participle that is analysed as more adjectival or adverbial than verbal, as it cannot be used with transitive verbs. With certain verbs it also has a frequentative implication, as in the following example:

Ég er gangandi í skóla.

I walk to school (regularly).

Technically the use of the present participle is often not an example of continuous aspect in Icelandic.

Italian

Italian forms a progressive aspect in much the same way as in Spanish, using a conjugated form of the verb stare ("to stay") followed by the gerund of the main verb. There are only two forms of gerunds, the choice depending upon the ending of the main verb in the infinitive: -ando for verbs whose infinitive ends in -are (parlare/parlando, mangiare/mangiando) or -endo if the infinitive ends in -ere or -ire (leggere/leggendo, dormire/dormendo). Thus 'I am speaking/reading/sleeping' is expressed Sto parlando/leggendo/dormendo.

Present tense

The present tense and the present progressive can have distinct meanings in Italian. Both can be used for present-time actions in progress: parlo con Mario and sto parlando con Mario can both mean 'I'm speaking with Mario (this moment, right now)', but only the bare present can be used to express ongoing state, as in parlo inglese 'I speak English', i.e. to convey the information 'I am able to speak English' (regardless of what I am doing at the time of speaking). Thus the present progressive clarifies immediacy: Sto uscendo 'I'm leaving (just now; on my way out)'.

The present continuous is formed by using the present tense of the verb stare + the gerund. As in English, the gerund conveys the main meaning of the utterance: sto pattinando (skating), I am skating. For the regular verbs, the gerund is formed from the infinitive of the verb by taking the stem and attaching the appropriate gerund suffix: -are verbs take -ando and the -ere and -ire verbs both take -endo. The table shows the conjugations of stare in the present tense with a gerund to exemplify the present continuous:

person	avere	essere	parlare	credere	finire	dire	opporre
io	sto avendo	sto essendo	sto parlando	sto credendo	sto finendo	sto dicendo	sto opponendo
tu	stai avendo	stai essendo	stai parlando	stai credendo	stai finendo	stai dicendo	stai opponendo
egli/ella	sta avendo	sta essendo	sta parlando	sta credendo	sta finendo	sta dicendo	sta opponendo
noi	stiamo avendo	stiamo essendo	stiamo parlando	stiamo credendo	stiamo finendo	stiamo dicendo	stiamo opponendo
voi	state avendo	state essendo	state parlando	state credendo	state finendo	state dicendo	state opponendo
essi/esse	stanno avendo	stanno essendo	stanno parlando	stanno credendo	stanno finendo	stanno dicendo	stanno opponendo

The present continuous tense has a very predictable conjugation pattern even for verbs that are typically irregular, such as essere ("to be") and avere ("to have"). For verbs with reduced infinitives, the gerund uses the same stem as the imperfect (which sometimes corresponds to the stem of the 1st person singular indicative present).

infinitive	1st sing. present	1st sing. imperfect	gerund
dire	dico	dicevo	dicendo
bere	bevo	bevevo	bevendo
fare	faccio	facevo	facendo
porre	pongo	ponevo	ponendo

Past tense

To form the past progressive, stare is conjugated in the imperfect and used with the gerund. For example, while sto andando means "I am going", stavo andando expresses I was going. In conventional Italian speaking, stavo andando and imperfect andavo are mostly interchangeable in the progressive meaning (stavo andando/andavo in ospedale... 'I was going [i.e. on my way] to the hospital...'), whereas past habitual "I used to go", "I went (often, repeatedly)" is expressible only with the imperfect andavo.

Conjugations of the Past Progressive:

person	avere	essere	parlare	credere	finire	dire	opporre
io	stavo avendo	stavo essendo	stavo parlando	stavo credendo	stavo finendo	stavo dicendo	stavo opponendo
tu	stavi avendo	stavi essendo	stavi parlando	stavi credendo	stavi finendo	stavi dicendo	stavi opponendo
lui/lei	stava avendo	stava essendo	stava parlando	stava credendo	stava finendo	stava dicendo	stava opponendo
noi	stavamo avendo	stavamo essendo	stavamo parlando	stavamo credendo	stavamo finendo	stavamo dicendo	stavamo opponendo
voi	stavate avendo	stavate essendo	stavate parlando	stavate credendo	stavate finendo	stavate dicendo	stavate opponendo
loro	stavano avendo	stavano essendo	stavano parlando	stavano credendo	stavano finendo	stavano dicendo	stavano opponendo

Like the present progressive, the Italian past progressive is extremely regular. Forms of stare are those common to -are verbs in the imperfect (stare/stavo, parlare/parlavo, etc.).

There is no readily available means in Italian for expressing the distinction between English "We were reading" and "We have been reading."

Japanese

Standard Japanese uses the same grammar form to form the progressive and the continuous aspect, specifically by using the -te iru form of a verb. Depending on the transitivity of the verb, they are interpreted as either progressive or continuous. For example:

Intransitive:

ペンが鞄に入っている。

Pen ga kaban ni haitte iru.

The pen is in the bag (continuous).

Transitive:

彼は晩ご飯を食べている。

Kare wa ban-gohan o tabeteiru.

He is eating dinner (progressive).

彼はペンを鞄に入れている。

Kare wa pen o kaban ni irete iru.

He is putting the pen in the bag (resultative). - this is usually understood to be resultative state as in "he keeps the pen in the bag" but can syntactically be interpreted as progressive, however this is highly strange and pragmatically incorrect.

Some dialects such as Chūgoku dialect and Shikoku dialect have different grammar forms for the progressive and the continuous aspect; the -toru form for the progressive and the -yoru form for the continuous. For example:

Continuous:

桜の花が散っとる。

Sakura no hana ga chittoru.

The cherry blossoms have fallen.

Progressive:

桜の花が散りよる。

Sakura no hana ga chiriyoru.

The cherry blossoms are falling.

Portuguese

In Portuguese the continuous aspect is marked by gerund, either by a proper -ndo ending (common in Brazil and Alentejo) or a (to) and the infinitive (gerundive infinitive - common in most Portugal); for example to be doing would be either estar a fazer or, similar to other Romance languages, estar fazendo.

Quechua

Quechua uses a specific suffix: -chka or -ykaa; which is directly attached before the conjugation suffixes. Although the continuous aspect in Quechua is similar to that of English, it is more used than the simple tenses and is commonly translated into them (simple present and past), because of the idea that actions are not instantaneous, but they have a specific duration (mikuni [I eat] and mikuchkani [I am eating] are both correct, but it is preferred to use mikuchkani because we do no eat in a second).

Slavic languages

Main article: Grammatical aspect in Slavic languages

In Slavic languages there is a clear distinction between perfective and imperfective grammatical aspects in the verb stem, with the latter emphasizing that the action is or was in progress (habitual or otherwise). It was in relation to these languages that the modern concept of grammatical aspect in general originally developed. Majority of verbs in Slavic languages have at least one matching pair of the other aspect – e.g. Czech koupit (perfective; done on a single occasion) and kupovat (imperfective; done over a longer period of time) which would translate as "to buy" and "be buying" respectively.

Perfective verbs are commonly formed from imperfective ones by the addition of a prefix, or else the imperfective verb is formed from the perfective one by modification of the stem or ending. Suppletion also plays a small role. Perfective verbs cannot generally be used with the meaning of a present tense – their present-tense forms in fact have future reference. An example of such a pair of verbs, from Polish, is given below:

• Infinitive (and dictionary form): pisać ("to write", imperfective); napisać ("to write", perfective)
• Present/simple future tense: pisze ("writes"); napisze ("will write", perfective)
• Compound future tense (imperfective only): będzie pisać ("will write, will be writing")
• Past tense: pisał ("was writing, used to write, wrote", imperfective); napisał ("wrote", perfective)

In at least the East Slavic and West Slavic languages, there is a three-way aspect differentiation for verbs of motion, with two forms of imperfective, determinate and indeterminate, and one form of perfective. The two forms of imperfective can be used in all three tenses (past, present, and future), but the perfective can only be used with past and future. The indeterminate imperfective expresses habitual aspect (or motion in no single direction), while the determinate imperfective expresses progressive aspect. The difference corresponds closely to that between the English "I (regularly) go to school" and "I am going to school (now)". The three-way difference is given below for the Russian basic (unprefixed) verbs of motion. When prefixes are attached to Russian verbs of motion, they become more or less normal imperfective/perfective pairs, although the prefixes are generally attached to the indeterminate imperfective to form the prefixed imperfective and to the determinate imperfective to form the prefixed perfective. For example, prefix при- + indeterminate ходи́ть = приходи́ть; and prefix при- + determinate идти́ = прийти (to arrive (on foot)).

Spanish

In Spanish, the continuous is constructed much as in English, using a conjugated form of estar (to be) plus the gerundio (gerund/gerundive/adverbial participle) of the main verb; for example, estar haciendo means to be doing (haciendo being the gerundio of hacer, to do).

Like English, Spanish also has a few related constructions with similar structures and related meanings; for example, seguir haciendo means to keep doing (seguir being to continue).

Conjugations of the Present Progressive in Spanish:

person	estar (to be)	hablar (to talk)	creer (to believe)	terminar (to finish)	decir (to say)	trabajar (to work)
yo	estoy	estoy hablando	estoy creyendo	estoy terminando	estoy diciendo	estoy trabajando
tu	estás	estás hablando	estás creyendo	estás terminando	estás diciendo	estás trabajando
usted	está	está hablando	está creyendo	está terminando	está diciendo	está trabajando
el/ella	está	está hablando	está creyendo	está terminando	está diciendo	está trabajando
nosotros	estamos	estamos hablando	estamos creyendo	estamos terminando	estamos diciendo	estamos trabajando
ustedes	están	están hablando	están creyendo	están terminando	están diciendo	están trabajando
ellos	están	están hablando	están creyendo	están terminando	están diciendo	están trabajando

See also

• Frequentative
• Grammatical aspect
• Imperfective aspect
• Grammar of the Breton language

References

Footnotes

1. G.L. Lewis, Turkish Grammar
2. Robert Underhill, Turkish Grammar
3. Jaklin Kornfilt, Turkish
4. §42.5, p. 368, A university course in English grammar, by Angela Downing and Philip Locke, reprint ed., Psychology Press, 2002, ISBN 0-415-28810-X.
5. Mufwene, Salikoko S., Stativity and the Progressive, Indiana Univ. Linguistics Club, 1984.
6. Lamont, George (2005), The Progress of English Verb Tenses and the English Progressive
7. Hoeksma, Jack, Verb Movement in Dutch Present Participle Clauses
8. Mustanoja, Tauno (1960), A Middle English Syntax, pp. 572–585
9. Killie, Kirstin (2012), Old English-Late British language contact and the English progressive
10. Elsness, Johann (1994), On the progression of the progressive in Early Modern English
11. Alexiadou, Artemis (2013), Nominal vs. Verbal -ing Constructions and the Development of the English Progressive
12. Schendl, Herbert (2012), Middle English: Language Contact
13. The colloquial 'rheinische Verlaufsform' is covered in an amusing article by Bastian Sick, see http://www.spiegel.de/kultur/zwiebelfisch/0,1518,350958,00.html
14. VAN OLPHEN, HERMAN (1975). "ASPECT, TENSE, AND MOOD IN THE HINDI VERB". Indo-Iranian Journal. 16 (4): 284–301. ISSN 0019-7246.
15. "बैठना - Wiktionary". en.wiktionary.org. Retrieved 2020-06-29.
16. Sharma, Ghanshyam (November 2010), Singh, Rajendra (ed.), "On Hindi Conditionals - Ghanshyam Sharma", Annual Review of South Asian Languages and Linguistics, Mouton de Gruyter, retrieved 2020-06-30

Bibliography

• Matthews, Stephen and Yip, Virginia (1994). Cantonese: A Comprehensive Grammar. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-08945-X.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Yip, Po-Ching; Rimmington, Don (2004). Chinese: A Comprehensive Grammar. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-15032-9.

External links

• What is continuous aspect?
• What is progressive aspect?
• The Present Progressives in the European Parliament Proceedings
• Resources to learn verbal aspects for Russian language