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The continuous and progressive aspects are grammatical aspects that express incomplete action in progress at a specific time: they are non-habitual, imperfective aspects. Most languages treat continuous and progressive aspects as alike and use the two terms interchangeably, but there are languages that distinguish them.
As with other grammatical categories, the precise semantics of the aspects vary from language to language, and from grammarian to grammarian. For example, G.L. Lewis's grammar of Turkish counts the -iyor form as a present tense; Robert Underhill's as a progressive tense; and Jacklin Kornfilt's as both a continuous (nonhabitual imperfective) and a progressive (continuous non-stative) aspect.
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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, the English sentence "Tom is walking" can express the active movement of Tom's legs (progressive aspect), or Tom's current state, the fact that Tom is walking rather than doing something else at the moment (continuous aspect).
The relationship between the progressive and continuous aspects is unclear. Some linguists consider the progressive aspect to be a kind of continuous aspect, one that merely emphasizes the action already conveyed by the continuous. Some other linguists consider the continuous aspect to be a kind of progressive aspect, because in many languages that distinguish the two, the formal progressive aspect can convey a semantic continuous aspect, but not the reverse. Additionally, the continuous and progressive aspects (whatever the relationship between them) are both sometimes considered to be kinds of durative aspect.
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.
The continuous aspect expressed with a regularly conjugated form of to be, together with the present participle of the main verb. For example, in the sentence "I was going to the store." the verb phrase was going is in the past continuous tense - that is, in the continuous aspect and the past tense.
The continuous aspect can be applied with any mood, voice, and tense, and in combination or not with the perfect aspect, although for obvious semantic reasons, some combinations are less common than others are. Some examples of the continuous aspect include:
The continuous is generally used for actions that are actively on-going at the time in question, and does not focus on the larger time-scale. For example, the sentence "John was playing tennis when Jane called him" indicates what John was doing when Jane called him, but does not indicate for how long John played, nor how often he plays; for that, the simple past would suffice: "John played tennis three hours every day for several years."
The perfect continuous (have been doing), as a special case, implies that the action being described was interrupted at the time in question, and does not clarify whether the action resumed. For example, "John had been playing tennis when Jane called him" suggests that Jane's calling him interrupted his tennis-playing (whereas in the former example, it was possible that he simply ignored her call), and leaves open the possibility that what she told him required such urgent action that he forfeited his match and left.
In the present tense, the continuous aspect can be used to describe actions that have not begun yet; and in any tense, a similar effect can be achieved with the auxiliary "go" in its continuous aspect. An example of the former is "I am taking three classes next semester"; of the latter, "I was going to do it if I had time, and then I did not have time." In this use, this construction has a temporal (tense-like) quality in additional to its usual aspectual one.
One hypothesis regarding the origin of the development of the English progressive aspect was the Old English construction that used a form of beon/wesan (to be/to become) with a present participle (-ende). Although there is some debate among scholars, it is generally thought that such a construction in Old English was not analogous to progressive aspect signaled in present-day-English (a more modern development), but rather carried the meaning of a simple stative verb, where the past participle functioned as an adjective, and was predominantly used for translating the corresponding construction in Latin texts (Brinton, 1988, p. 109).
One postulated source of the English's current progressive aspect is the Celtic languages that were spoken in Britain during much of Britain's history, all of which formed it similarly.[1] This may explain why English is the only Germanic language with this feature.[citation needed]
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Chinese is one family of languages that makes a distinction between the continuous and progressive aspects.
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:
| English Translation | ||
|---|---|---|
| Progressive | I am putting on clothes. | |
| Continuous | 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:
喺度 can also be used without 緊 to indicate the progressive aspect.
Unlike Cantonese, Mandarin does not have a verb suffix for expressing the progressive aspect, but it can use 正在 (or simply just 在), which also translates to "at [here]", 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. Incidentally, 著/着 is also used for the Cantonese word for "wear", but is actually not related because it is one of those words that have multiple meanings in Chinese.
| English Translation | ||
|---|---|---|
| Progressive | I am putting on clothes. | |
| Continuous | I am wearing clothes. |
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. 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, or as simply nous mangions.
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.
Italian forms a continuous aspect in much the same way as in English, using a present tense conjugation of the verb stare ("to be") followed by the gerund of the main verb. Depending upon the ending of the main verb in the infinitive, the present participle will replace the infinitive suffix with -ando (if the verb's infinitive ends in -are) or -endo (if the infinitive ends in -ere or -ire). For example: Sto leggendo ("I am reading").
The present tense and the present continuous have distinct meanings in Italian, the latter emphasising that the action is occurring at time the speaker is speaking. For example, Sto pattinando and Io pattino ("I am skating" [now] and "I skate") carry different connotations in standard Italian. While in English, one may say, "We are reading" and "We have been reading" to two different effects, there is no expression specifically for the latter in Italian.
The present continuous is formed by using the present tense of the verb stare + the gerundio. The gerundio is an Italian verb form - participle - and conveys the main meaning of the tense. For the regular verbs, the gerundio is formed from the infinitive of the verb by taking the stem and replacing the verb suffix with the appropriate gerundio 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 gerundio 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 |
| lui/lei | 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 |
| loro | stanno avendo | stanno essendo | stanno parlando | stanno credendo | stanno finendo | stanno dicendo | stanno opponendo |
The present continuous tense is one of the least irregular tenses in the Italian language, with a very predictable conjugation pattern even for verbs that are typically irregular, such as essere ("to be") and avere ("to have"). Note that for some of these irregular verbs, the gerund takes its stem from the 1st person singular of the indicative present tense:
| infinitive | 1st pers. sing. present | gerund |
|---|---|---|
| dire | dico | dicendo |
| bere | bevo | bevendo |
| fare | faccio | facendo |
The past progressive is considered interchangeable with the imperfect tense. The gerundio remains unchanged, but the conjugation of stare changes to its normal conjugation for the imperfect tense. For example, Sto andando ("I am going") would change to Stavo andando ("I was going") in the past progressive. In conventional Italian speaking, Stavo andando, the past progressive, is mostly interchangeable with Andavo ("I used to go" or "I went"), the imperfect.
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. There are no irregular past participles, and stare follows the regular conjugation pattern for -are verbs in the imperfect tense.
There is no continuous aspect in standard German; however, 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 an infinitive. 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 of standard German, although it is still frowned upon in formal and literary contexts.[2]
There are various methods of forming a continuous in Dutch.
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 Tarifit variant of Berber, the participle aqqa is added before the verb to form present continuous.
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.
In the Russian language the continuous aspect may be expressed using reduplication.[citation needed]
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). Unlike in English, the continuous cannot be used to describe an action that has not yet begun at the time of interest; however, in the present tense, the simple present suffices for this, and in any tense, a similar effect can be achieved with the auxiliary ir a ("to go to") in its non-continuous aspect.
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).
Hindi and Urdu have a definite progressive/continuous aspect, marked by auxiliaries, for past, present, and future. It is distinguished from the simple aspect, and is widely used in everyday speech. Like English, it is also used to denote an immediate future action. For a complete conjugation of the continuous tenses, see Hindi grammar.
Quechua uses a specific suffix: -chka or sha; 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).
Japanese uses the same grammar form to form the progressive and the continuous aspect, specifically by using the -teiru form of a verb. Depending on the transitivity of the verb, they are interpreted as either progressive or continuous. For example:
