yego.me
💡 Stop wasting time. Read Youtube instead of watch. Download Chrome Extension

Progressive Aspect | The parts of speech | Grammar | Khan Academy


2m read
·Nov 11, 2024

Hello, grammarians! Let's talk about the progressive aspect.

So, we talked about the simple aspect as something that is just the most bare form. It's what you see here: I walk, I will walk, I walked.

But aspect allows us to talk about things that are ongoing, and that's what we call the progressive. Because it's progressing, it's going, it's happening.

So, if we are telling a story and we are inside that moment, we can use the progressive aspect. So, "I walk" becomes in the present "I am walking."

The way the progressive works is that it takes the form of "to be" for whatever the subject of the sentence is—in this case, "I"—and it changes the verb into an -ing verb. That's what it does; that's what the progressive does.

Its effect is to say that something is ongoing. This is also called the continuous aspect, but I like to call it the progressive aspect.

Let's try this in all the different basic conjugations. So, we call this the present progressive. Let's try the past progressive.

So, if it says, "I walked," we would just take the verb "to be" and then put it in the past. So, this part doesn't change—the walking doesn't change. You would say, "I was walking."

Likewise, for the future. So, we're not going to change the walking part; we're just going to put this "am" part into the future, which is like, "So, I will be walking."

That's the future progressive.

So, the way to remember the progressive aspect is for me to hideously butcher the writing of David Mamet and tell you to always remember your ABCs: always be conjugating.

Conjugating here is just a word that means, uh, to put verbs in different tenses and aspects. But I really want you to focus on the fact that we've got this "b" and this "ing."

So, just remember "b" and "ing," and that's how you form the progressive.

So, no matter whether or not it's happening in the past, it's still "I was walking."

So, the part that changes is the "b," is the verb "to be": "I was walking, I am walking, I will be walking."

The part that doesn't change is the walking, and that's how you express that something is ongoing, that something is continuously happening in the telling of the story.

Standing this will enable you to master time. You can learn anything.

Dave it out.

More Articles

View All
NERD WARS: Blizzcon Kerrigan, Lich King, Diablo and Deathwing 1/2
[Music] Hey guys, this is Jeff from Wacky Gamer. You had awesome BlizzCon nerd War suggestions! I’m really excited to go ask the fans. Meanwhile, go to Facebook.WackyGamer.com and you can contribute and see some of our pictures. I still have to go with …
China Is About To Cause A Global Recession
Two of the world’s biggest economies, the United States and China, are struggling. Business activity in Shanghai was brought to a standstill for weeks. Disastrous. I think there is no other word for it. What’s up guys? It’s Graham here. Throughout the la…
Calculus based justification for function increasing | AP Calculus AB | Khan Academy
We are told the differentiable function h and its derivative h prime are graphed, and you can see it here. h is in blue, and then its derivative h prime is in this orange color. Four students were asked to give an appropriate calculus-based justification …
The Story Behind Europe's Tallest Statue: The Motherland Calls | National Geographic
[Music] Mr. O’Reilly, 300ccs. Don’t name our canoes. No visible earth, it has the scale of America’s National Mall and the seriousness of Pearl Harbor. Combine them, and that’s what it feels like to visit Mammoth Gorgon, the memorial complex for the Batt…
Why 80% of New Years Resolutions FAIL by today
What’s up you guys? It’s Graham here. So, how sad is this? 80% of New Year’s resolutions fail by the second week of February. And if you haven’t noticed, today is February 14th, the second week of February. Now, I know it’s also Valentine’s Day, but for t…
2014 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting (Full Version)
Thank you. Good morning. Uh, before we start, there are two very special guests that I’d like to introduce. Have stand up. Uh, the first, uh, even though he was on tour, he, uh, took a quick, uh, detour to Omaha to be here today, and will my friend Paul A…