An elephant teaches the progressive

A good example of verbs with duration

This video clip is extremely popular with children. Watch it once and you will see why. As you watch it, think about what is happening. How would you describe it? Why is it so natural to use present progressive verb forms?



If you have my book, Understanding English verb forms, you will remember from the chapters on the progressive, that progressive verb forms deal with actions that have duration, i.e., actions that take time. Clearly, everything a slow-moving elephant does takes time. Also, the elephant in the video is doing repeated actions - the same things over and over again and again.

Watch the elephant from start to finish. Tell what it is doing. Here are some verbs you might use: walk, get on, start, jump (or bounce), somersault (to jump into the air so your body turns over and over again). The equipment in the video is called a trampoline.

Posted by Terry Fredrickson at 03:36 PM