The continuous and progressive aspects (

abbreviated An abbreviation (from Latin ''brevis'', meaning ''short'') is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method. It may consist of a group of letters or words taken from the full version of the word or phrase; for example, the word ''abbrevia ...

and ) are grammatical aspects that express incomplete action ("to do") or state ("to be") in progress at a specific time: they are non-habitual,

imperfective The imperfective (abbreviated or more ambiguously ) is a grammatical aspect used to describe ongoing, habitual, repeated, or similar semantic roles, whether that situation occurs in the past, present, or future. Although many languages have a g ...

aspects. In the grammars of many languages the two terms are used interchangeably. This is also the case with

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

: 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 Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

, 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 The present tense (abbreviated or ) is a grammatical tense whose principal function is to locate a situation or event in the present time. The present tense is used for actions which are happening now. In order to explain and understand present ...

; some as a progressive tense; and some as both a continuous (nonhabitual imperfective) and a progressive (continuous non-stative) aspect.

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

The continuous aspect is constructed by using a form of the copula, "to be", together with the present

participle In linguistics, a participle () (from Latin ' a "sharing, partaking") is a nonfinite verb form that has some of the characteristics and functions of both verbs and adjectives. More narrowly, ''participle'' has been defined as "a word derived from ...

(marked with the suffix ''-ing''). 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."

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contrasts the effect of the progressive form on the meanings of action verbs versus those of lexically stative verbs: :# converts events expected to be punctual into longer-lasting, even if transient, states of affairs .g., "Nancy is writing a letter" :# it onersely converts those states of affairs expected to last long (lexical statives) to shorter-lasting / transient states of affairs .g., "Tom is living with us" and :# it simply presents those verbs whose denotations are neutral with regard to duration as in process / in (transient) duration .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 Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English p ...

. The first used a form of beon/wesan (to be/to become) with a present participle (-ende). This construction has an analogous form in Dutch (see below). The second used beon/wesan, a preposition, and a gerund (-unge), and has been variously proposed as being influenced by similar forms in

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and French or British Celtic, though evidence one way or another is scant. 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. 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."

Berber

In the

Amazigh , image = File:Berber_flag.svg , caption = The Berber ethnic flag , population = 36 million , region1 = Morocco , pop1 = 14 million to 18 million , region2 = Algeria , pop2 ...

language, past continuous is formed by using the fixed participle (original meaning: I forgot); is added before the verb that is in the present tense. So we have: : he writes / he is writing : he was writing Present continuous is usually the same as the present tense. But in the

Riff A riff is a repeated chord progression or refrain in music (also known as an ostinato figure in classical music); it is a pattern, or melody, often played by the rhythm section instruments or solo instrument, that forms the basis or acc ...

variety of Berber, the participle is added before the verb to form present continuous.

Chinese

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

Cantonese

Cantonese Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding ar ...

has a very regular system for expressing aspects via verb suffixes. is typically used to express progressive aspect while is used to express continuous aspect. Take the following example: 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 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, (literally meaning "at here") can be used in front of the verb: can also be used without 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'' (or just ), similar to how Cantonese uses in front of the verb. The continuous aspect does have a verb suffix, ''zhe'', which is cognate with the Cantonese in this context. For more information see .

Danish

Danish has several ways of constructing continuous aspect. * The first is using the form + infinitive ("is at" meaning "in the process of"). For instance ("he is at to build new house") meaning "he is building a new house". This is similar to the German form using "". * Some verbs are always or default continuous, for instance verbs indicating motion, location or position, such as ("sitting"), ("standing"), ("lying") or ("walking"). This means their present tense forms are their continuous forms: ("he stands there") means "he is standing over there", and ("I sit down"), means "I am sitting". Note this means Danish often has two different forms of simple 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 ("to lay") and ("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: ("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 ("he is walked") meaning "he has left (on foot)", versus 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 In linguistics, periphrasis () is the use of one or more function words to express meaning that otherwise may be expressed by attaching an affix or clitic to a word. The resulting phrase includes two or more collocated words instead of one in ...

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 The imperfect ( abbreviated ) is a verb form that combines past tense (reference to a past time) and imperfective aspect (reference to a continuing or repeated event or state). It can have meanings similar to the English "was walking" or "used to ...

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

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 Rhenish 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

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. 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 Rhineland (german: Rheinland; french: Rhénanie; nl, Rijnland; ksh, Rhingland; Latinised name: ''Rhenania'') is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly its middle section. Term Historically, the Rhinelands ...

, the

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, and

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, 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 ''Rhenish 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.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 In

Southern Austro-Bavarian Southern Bavarian or South Bavarian, is a cluster of Upper German dialects of the Bavarian group. They are primarily spoken in Tyrol (i.e. the Austrian federal state of Tyrol and the Italian province of South Tyrol), in Carinthia and in the west ...

, 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-Urdu

Hindi Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' Hindustani) has distinct constructions to convey progressive and continuous actions. Progressive actions are marked through the progressive aspect participle ''rahā'' used along with the verb root, while the continuous action is conveyed through the perfective adjectival participle which is constructed by conjugating the verb into its perfective aspect participle and combining it with the perfective aspect participle of the verb ''honā'' (to be), which is ''huā''.

Icelandic

Icelandic possesses a present continuous aspect much like that found in English. This feature is unique among the

Scandinavian languages The North Germanic languages make up one of the three branches of the Germanic languages—a sub-family of the Indo-European languages—along with the West Germanic languages and the extinct East Germanic languages. The language group is also r ...

. 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 The simple present, present simple or present indefinite is one of the verb forms associated with the present tense in modern English. It is commonly referred to as a tense, although it also encodes certain information about aspect in addition ...

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

adverb An adverb is a word or an expression that generally modifies a verb, adjective, another adverb, determiner, clause, preposition, or sentence. Adverbs typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, level of certainty, etc., answering ...

ial than

verb A verb () is a word ( part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descr ...

al, as it cannot be used with

transitive verb A transitive verb is a verb that accepts one or more objects, for example, 'cleaned' in ''Donald cleaned the window''. This contrasts with intransitive verbs, which do not have objects, for example, 'panicked' in ''Donald panicked''. Transiti ...

s. With certain verbs it also has a

frequentative In grammar, a frequentative form ( abbreviated or ) of a word is one that indicates repeated action but is not to be confused with iterative aspect. The frequentative form can be considered a separate but not completely independent word called a ...

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 Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

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 In linguistics, a gerund ( abbreviated ) is any of various nonfinite verb forms in various languages; most often, but not exclusively, one that functions as a noun. In English, it has the properties of both verb and noun, such as being modifiab ...

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: : 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). :

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 .e. on my wayto 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: : 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

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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 In grammar, an intransitive verb is a verb whose context does not entail a direct object. That lack of transitivity distinguishes intransitive verbs from transitive verbs, which entail one or more objects. Additionally, intransitive verbs ar ...

: : : :The pen is in the bag (continuous). Transitive: : : :He is eating dinner (progressive). : : :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 The is a group of the Japanese dialects spoken in most of the Chūgoku region and in the northwestern Kansai region. It may be separated into two groups according to the form of the copula. * copula ''ja'' group (San'yō region) ** Aki also kno ...

and

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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: : : :The cherry blossoms have fallen. Progressive: : : :The cherry blossoms are falling.

Portuguese

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

the continuous aspect is marked by gerund, either by a proper ''-ndo'' ending (common in

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

and Alentejo) or ''a'' (''to'') and the infinitive (gerundive infinitive – common in most

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); for example ''to be doing'' would be either ''estar a fazer'' or, similar to other Romance languages, ''estar fazendo''.

Quechua

Quechua Quechua may refer to: *Quechua people, several indigenous ethnic groups in South America, especially in Peru *Quechuan languages, a Native South American language family spoken primarily in the Andes, derived from a common ancestral language **So ...

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'' eatand ''mikuchkani'' am eatingare both correct, but it is preferred to use ''mikuchkani'' because ''we do no eat in a second'').

Slavic languages

Slavic languages The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic, spoken during the ...

, 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. The majority of verbs in Slavic languages have at least one complementary verb for both aspects – e.g. Czech '' koupit'' (perfective; done on a single occasion) and '' kupovat'' (imperfective; done over a longer period of time) which translates as "''to buy''" and "''be buying''" respectively. Perfective verbs are commonly formed from imperfective ones by the addition of a prefix; conversely the imperfective verb can be formed from the perfective one by modification of the stem or ending. Suppletion also plays a small role. Perfective verbs generally cannot 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

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, is given below: *Infinitive (and

dictionary form In morphology and lexicography, a lemma (plural ''lemmas'' or ''lemmata'') is the canonical form, dictionary form, or citation form of a set of word forms. In English, for example, ''break'', ''breaks'', ''broke'', ''broken'' and ''breaking'' ...

): ''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 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 continuous and progressive aspects ( abbreviated and ) 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. In the grammars of many ...

. The difference corresponds closely to that between 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

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

, the continuous is constructed much as in English, using a conjugated form of ''estar'' (''to be'') plus the ''gerundio'' (

gerundive In Latin grammar, a gerundive () is a verb form that functions as a verbal adjective. In Classical Latin, the gerundive is distinct in form and function from the gerund and the present active participle. In Late Latin, the differences were large ...

adverbial participle In linguistics, a participle () (from Latin ' a "sharing, partaking") is a nonfinite verb form that has some of the characteristics and functions of both verbs and adjectives. More narrowly, ''participle'' has been defined as "a word derived from ...

) 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: :

Swedish

Swedish has several ways of constructing continuous aspect. * The first is using the form + infinitive ("hold on" meaning "in the process of"). For instance ("I'm writing a letter"). * Some verbs are always or default continuous, for instance verbs indicating motion, location or position, such as "walk", "lie", "sit" and "stay". This means their present tense forms are their continuous forms: ("he lies in my bed") means "he is lying in my bed", and "she sits in the kitchen" means "she is sitting in the kitchen". Note this means Swedish often has two different forms to simple 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 Swedish ("to lay") and "att ligga" (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, Danish and Dutch. For instance: , , and , all mean "he is reading (while lying/standing/sitting/going)". Also note that these may be in the past tense: , , and , all mean "he was reading (while lying/standing/sitting/going)".

References

Footnotes

Bibliography

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External links

The Present Progressives in the European Parliament Proceedings

Resources to learn verbal aspects for Russian language
{{Grammatical aspects Grammatical aspects