THE PROGRESSIVE TENSE

10 THE PROGRESSIVE TENSE

he progressive tense (or progressive aspect) combines the use of either the past or present forms of the verb be (is, am, are, was and were) and the -ing form of the main verb. With the progressive tense, the usual implication is that the event or activity goes on over a limited period of time, and is not necessarily inished yet. I have noticed that many English language learners have a tendency to use the progressive tense with verbs and instances where the present tense or past tense are more appropriate. Common English learning errors occur mainly due to confusion resulting from meanings of the verbs used.

We divide verbs into diferent categories in English. On major classiication is between static and dynamic. With dynamic verbs (e.g., play, hit, kick, melt), the agent is actively involved in the action or event. With stative verbs (e.g., hate, believe, own, have, hear, know), no action is involved on the part of the agent as they express and identify processes or states of being and mind. he latter group do not usually occur in the progressive.

here is another important aspect for learners of English to remember. In English, only a few verbs appear in the progressive (the estimate is less than 5%). Moreover, they are more frequent in conversation than writing.

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One way to avoid pitfalls in the use of the progressive tense is to resort to the present simple tense whenever possible. he present simple tense can be used in most cases where learners get it wrong with the use of the progressive tense as the samples below demonstrate. he present tense is versatile in English in the sense that it does not only indicate the present time but can even describe events that happen repeatedly within a time frame that overlaps between the present, past and future.

EXERCISE Here are a few examples of some of the most frequent pitfalls learners make with the use

of the progressive tense when writing English:

10.1 he use of is demanding is inappropriate in the following:

he segmentation is demanding an efort from the individual. 

he segmentation demands an efort from the individual. 

10.2 So is the use of is depending in the following: It is depending on relations between the actors. 

It depends on relations between the actors. 

10.3 Here are more examples: It is diminishing the impact. 

It diminishes the impact.  Hence, it is not showing any large skewness. 

Hence, it does not show any large skewness.  hese are ranging from the smallest with about 5 employees, to the largest publishers

with hundreds of employees. 

he number of employees ranges from a handful to hundreds, depending on the size of publisher. 

Most of the lecturers are conducting research on a variety of topics.  Most lecturers conduct research on a variety of topics. 

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heir literature review is covering entrepreneurship and internationalization.  heir literature review covers entrepreneurship and internationalization. 

Lecturers are also performing research within their areas.  Lecturers also perform research within their areas. 

hey are devoting 35% of their working hours for undergraduate education.  hey devote 35% of their working hours to undergraduate education. 

10.4 Apart from the erroneous use of the progressive tense are following, the sentence below is awkward. he reason is the use of the slash (/) twice (see Chapter 7) and the repetition of the same expression product/project also twice. One way to solve a long and awkward sentence (see p. 127) like this one is to divide it into two separate sentences:

he costing situations are following the product/project and the situations that are a part of the relationship but not related to a speciic product/project is included. 

he costing situations follow the project or the product. hey also follow the situations that are part of the relationship but are not linked to a speciic project or product. 

10.5 Here is another long and awkward sentence (see p. 127). Besides the error in the progressive tense, the sentence needs to be rewritten and divided into two separate sentences:

he 3&4 and 5&6 relationships are undermining the way to showing the costs in order to motivate the costs should mainly be seen as a short term and rare occurrence that the buyers are accepting ineiciency. 

he relations between 3 and 4, and 5 and 6 undermine the way the costs are shown. To be motivated, they should mainly be seen as short term and a rare occurrence of the buyers accepting ineiciency. 

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10.6 he following sentence has more than one error. First, it is incomplete (see Chapter 12). Second, it includes an inappropriate use of the progressive tense:

When the products in a production process are lowing in a continuous fashion like e.g.

a petrol reinery.  When the products in a production process low without interruption, as is the case with

a petrol reinery, maintenance costs drop.  NOTE he correct version above completes the sentence. he additional independent clause is

marked in bold. he sentence starts with when, which is a complex sentence marker (see 12.4 ). Other changes include the omission of expressions like are lowing in a continuous fashion and like e.g. which I see as superluous.

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10.7 he following is yet another good example of an awkward sentence (see p. 127). It has to be rephrased. In the meantime, it has two grammatical pitfalls, one in the use of the progressive tense, and the other in subject-verb agreement (see Chapter 4):

On the other hand, if the wage is not compensating for the attractiveness, but the accessibility to attractiveness actually add some value we can expect a positive sign.  However, the accessibility to attractiveness actually adds some value. We can still expect

a positive sign if the wage does not compensate for attractiveness. 

10.8 We need two separate sentences in order to make the following read well. As we rewrite, we will need to get rid of the grammatical pitfalls which include an error in the use of the progressive tense as well as an error in subject-verb agreement:

he sales are also a lot slower now comparing to earlier this year, there is rarely more than two that is bidding on the same apartment. 

he sales are a lot slower when compared to earlier this year. here are rarely more than two persons bidding for the same apartment.  Compared to earlier this year, the sales are a lot slower. Rarely are there more than two persons bidding for the same apartment. 

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