Going on and on

[Alan]

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Hi,

I know it doesn’t need me to blow its own trumpet. What I mean here is sing its own praises and I hope I’m not being too linguistically patriotic but I do think that one of the good points about English is its continuous tense app. I thought I’d show off a bit and use the abbreviation ‘app’ for ‘application’ such as is used today when talking about ipads and similar devices. What I mean is the ability to express a continuous activity without having to stick lots of adverbs and adverbial phrases over the place like ‘now’ ‘presently’ ‘at this moment’ or even worse ‘at this moment in time’ (that’s one of my pet hates). Imagine the setting. The people in the capital city are happy at the prospect of getting a new leader. They voted for him and he is very popular. What do people invariably do when they are happy and contented? They sing. You could say: There will thousands of people at the ceremony and they will sing in the streets. Well, yes. The point has been made. But how about: There will be thousands of people at the ceremony and they will be singing in the street? Suddenly there’s not just humming but mouths are opened and you can hear the vocal chords at work. Long live the continuous tense!

Alan
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English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story Present Simple

[Our Tort System]

It's great that English has so many intricate ways to put thought into words, with different shades of difference between them.
I wish I could perceive the continuous tense the way you do.
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If it's not easy, don't do it!
That's how I got where I am.