Continuous aspect
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A continuous or progressive aspect is the grammatical aspect that expresses an incomplete action in progress at a specific time: it is a non-habitual, imperfective aspect.
As with other grammatical categories, the precise semantics of the continuous aspect 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 English continuous
Formation
The continuous aspect is 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. Some examples of the continuous aspect include:
- We had been talking for hours. (indicative mood, active voice, past tense, perfect continuous aspect)
- If you're not going to be working on it the whole time, … (indicative mood, active voice, present tense, continuous aspect)
- … then I recommend you at least be working on it when the teacher gets back. (present subjunctive mood, active voice, continuous aspect)
- I wish I were being given more interesting tasks. (past subjunctive mood, passive voice, continuous aspect)
Use
The continuous is generally used with 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 in the middle of 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 be used: "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'm taking three classes next semester"; of the latter, "I was going to do it if I had time, and then I didn't have time." In this use, this construction has a temporal (tense-like) quality in additional to its usual aspectual one.
The continuous in other languages
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. 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.
German
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 preposition am (at or on), and an infinitive. For example, ich bin am lesen (literally I am at to read) 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 of standard German, although it is still frowned upon in formal and literary contexts.
Jèrriais
Jèrriais constructs the continuous with verb êt' (be) + à (preposition) + infinitive. For example, j'têmes à mangi translates as we were eating.
Spanish
In Spanish, the continuous is constructed much as in English, using a regularly conjugated form of the verb estar together with the gerundio of the main verb. 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 ("to go") in its non-continuous aspect.