Continuous and progressive aspects

The continuous and progressive aspects are grammatical aspects that express incomplete action or state in progress at a specific time: they are non-habitual, imperfective aspects.
In the grammars of many languages the two terms are used interchangeably. This is also the case with English: a construction such as "He is washing" may be described either as present continuous or as present progressive. However, there are certain languages for which two different aspects are distinguished. In Chinese, for example, progressive aspect denotes a current action, as in "he is getting dressed", while continuous aspect denotes a current state, as in "he is wearing fine clothes".
As with other grammatical categories, the precise semantics of the aspects vary from language to language, and from grammarian to grammarian. For example, some grammars of Turkish count the -iyor form as a present tense; some as a progressive tense; and some as both a continuous and a progressive aspect.

Continuous versus progressive

The progressive aspect expresses the dynamic quality of actions that are in progress while the continuous aspect expresses the state of the subject that is continuing the action. For instance, "Tom is reading" can express dynamic activity: "Tom is reading a book" – i.e. right now, or Tom's current state: "Tom is reading for a degree" – i.e. Tom is a student. The aspect can often be ambiguous; "Tom is reading Ulysses" may describe his current activity, or the state of having started, but not yet finished, the book.

Continuous and progressive in various languages

Unless otherwise indicated, the following languages treat continuous and progressive aspects the same, in which case the term continuous is used to refer to both.

English

Use

The continuous aspect is constructed by using a form of the copula, "to be", together with the present participle. It is generally used for actions that are occurring at the time in question, and does not focus on the larger time-scale. For example, the sentence "Andrew was playing tennis when Jane called him." indicates what Andrew was doing when Jane called him, but does not indicate for how long Andrew played, nor how often he plays; for that, the simple past would suffice: "Andrew played tennis three hours every day for several years."
Salikoko Mufwene contrasts the effect of the progressive form on the meanings of action verbs versus those of lexically stative verbs:

Origin

The progressive aspect in English likely arose from two constructions that were used fairly rarely in Old and Early Middle English. The first used a form of beon/wesan with a present participle. This construction has an analogous form in Dutch. The second used beon/wesan, a preposition, and a gerund, and has been variously proposed as being influenced by similar forms in Latin and French or British Celtic, though evidence one way or another is scant. Over the course of the Middle English period, sound shifts in the language meant that the participle ending and the gerund ending merged into a new ending,. This change, which was complete in southern England around the late fifteenth century and spread north from there, rendered participles and gerunds indistinguishable. It is at this point that a sudden increase in the use of progressive forms is visible, though they would not take their current form until the eighteenth century. Linguist Herbert Schendl has concluded that "with this feature, a polygenetic origin... seems attractive, and at least the further extension of the progressive is a language-internal development."

Berber

In the Amazigh language, past continuous is formed by using the fixed participle ' ; is added before the verb that is in the present tense. So we have:
Present continuous is usually the same as the present tense. But in the Riff variety of Berber, the participle ' is added before the verb to form present continuous.

Chinese

is one family of languages that makes a distinction between the continuous and progressive aspects.

Cantonese

marks both aspects with verb suffixes. gan² is typically used to express progressive aspect, while zyu⁶ is used to express continuous aspect. Take the following example:

	Example
Progressive
Continuous

In the example, the progressive aspect expresses the fact that the subject is actively putting on clothes rather than merely wearing them as in the continuous aspect. This example is useful for showing English speakers the difference between continuous and progressive because "wearing" in English never conveys the progressive aspect..
In Cantonese, the progressive marker gan² 緊 can express the continuous aspect as well, depending on the context, but in general, the progressive aspect is assumed. In order to emphasize the progressive aspect rather than the continuous, hai² dou⁶ can be used in front of the verb:
hai² dou⁶ 喺度 can also be used without gan² 緊 to indicate the progressive aspect.

Mandarin

marks the progressive aspect with the pre-verbal auxiliary zài, and the continuous aspect with the verb suffix zhe. An alternative to zài 在 is zhèngzài, which emphasizes simultaneity and is similar to Cantonese's use of 喺度.

	Example
Progressive
Continuous

For more information see.

Danish

Danish has several ways of constructing continuous aspect.

The first is using the form er ved + infinitive. For instance han er ved at bygge nyt hus meaning "he is building a new house". This is similar to the German form using "beim".
Some verbs are always or default continuous, for instance verbs indicating motion, location or position, such as sidder, står, ligger or går. This means their present tense forms are their continuous forms: Han står dér means "he is standing over there", and jeg sidder ned, means "I am sitting". Note this means Danish often has two different forms of simple verbs when they make sense both continuous and non-continuous – English has only one such fully functional pair remaining, and it happens to share this one with Danish at lægge and at ligge – "Lay down so you can lie down".
Using these default continuous verbs together with a non-default continuous verb makes both continuous. This is a form also used in other Germanic languages such as Norwegian and Dutch. For instance: Han står og ryger means "he is smoking ".
Another form is used for motions such as walking, driving or flying. When constructing perfect tense they can be constructed with either 'is' or 'has'. Where 'has' indicates a completed travel, and 'is' indicates a started journey. For instance han er gået meaning "he has left ", versus jeg har fløjet meaning "I have flown ".
Dutch

The continuous aspect is commonly used in Dutch, though not as often as in English. There are various methods of forming a continuous:

One form is the same as in English: zijn with the present participle, e.g., Het schip is zinkende. This form puts stress on the continuous aspect and often gives some dramatic overtone, making it not commonly used.
The second method is the most common in Dutch. It is formed with zijn, followed by the preposition and definite article aan het and the gerund, e.g., Ik ben aan het lezen, meaning I am reading.
The third method is by using a verb expressing a physical position, like zitten, staan, liggen, followed by te and the infinitive. Examples: Ik zit te lezen, meaning I am reading , Ik stond te wachten, meaning I was waiting , Zij ligt te slapen, meaning She is sleeping , Wij lopen te zingen, meaning We are singing . When translating into English or another language, the physical position generally isn't mentioned, only the action itself. In English, similar constructions exist but are uncommon and marginally more frequent only in certain dialects, e.g. I sat reading, I stood waiting, etc.
A fourth method, also available in English, is using zijn with the adverb and preposition bezig met and the gerund, e.g., Ik ben bezig met lezen, meaning I am reading. If there is an object, there are two forms: 1. the gerund is preceded by the neuter article het and followed by the preposition van and the object, e.g. Ik ben bezig met het lezen van deze brief, meaning I am reading this letter; 2. the object comes before the full infinitive, e.g. Ik ben bezig met deze brief te lezen, meaning I am reading this letter. This form of the continuous is mostly used for a real activity. Grammar-wise, it is possible to say zij is bezig te denken or hij is bezig te slapen, but it sounds strange in Dutch. In these cases, other forms of the continuous are generally used, specifically the second method: Zij is aan het denken and hij is aan het slapen.
A fifth method also involves the use of zijn with the adverb bezig, this time followed by te and the infinitive, e.g. Ik ben bezig te koken, meaning I am cooking. If there is an object, it comes before the verb, e.g. Ik ben bezig aardappelen te koken, meaning I am cooking potatoes. This form is also mainly used for real activities. Zij is bezig te denken and Hij is bezig te slapen are uncommon.
The sixth method is a special form of the continuous. It implicitly means that the subject is away to do an activity. It uses zijn, followed by the infinitive, e.g., Zij is winkelen, meaning She is shopping.