Page 490 - Practical English Usage 3ed - Michael Swan, Oxford
P. 490
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progressive and non-progressive uses
Compare the progressive and non-progressive uses of some of the verbs listed above.
- I'm feeling fine. (OR I feel fine. - see 202.1)
Ifeel weshouldn'tdo it. (NOT I'mfeelingwesh6ttltin'£dB it. -feelhere= have an opinion.)
- What are you thinking about?
What do you think of the government? (NOT ylhti£ (1;Fe)'6tt thinking u/the
gtJrJef',mtertt? - think here = have an opinion.)
- I'm seeing Leslie tomorrow.
I see what you mean. (NOT :'1'11 seeing what)'6/:t mean. - see here =understand.)
- Why are you smelling the meat? Is it bad?
Does the meat smell bad? (NOT Is the meat smelling btlti? - see 535.)
- I'm just tasting the cake to see if it's OK.
The cake tastes wonderful. (NOT The eake's ttftSeing WBnderfr:t1. - see 577.)
- The scales broke when I was weighing myself this morning. I weighed 68 kilos three months ago - and look at me now!
(NOT I was ftleighing 68 kil6s ... - weigh here =have weight.) Occasionally 'non-progressive' verbs are used in progressive forms in order to emphasise the idea of change or development.
These days, more and more people prefer I are preferring to take early retirement.
The water tastes I is tasting better today.
As I get older, I remember I I'm remembering less and less. I'm liking it here more and more as time goes by.
Need, want and mean can have future or present perfect progressive uses. Will you be needing the car this afternoon?
I've just been invited to Sydney. It's wonderful - I've been wanting to go to
Australia for years.
I've been meaning to tell you about Andrew. He ...
can see etc
Can is often used with see, hear, feel, taste, smell, understand and remember to give a kind of progressive meaning, especially in British English. For details, see 125.
I can see Sue coming down the road. Can you smell something burning?
-ing forms
Even verbs which are never used in progressive tenses have -ing forms which can be used in other kinds of structure.
Knowing her tastes, I bought her a large box ofchocolates.
I don't like to go to a country without knowing something of the language.
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progressive (2): non-progressive verbs 471
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