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Continuous and progressive aspects
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<p>The continuous and progressive aspects (<a href="/facts/List_of_glossing_abbreviations/6IN8Pt68">abbreviated</a> CONT and PROG) are <a href="/facts/Grammatical_aspect/zX9gFXn9">grammatical aspects</a> that express incomplete action ("to do") or state ("to be") in progress at a specific time: they are non-habitual, <a href="/facts/Imperfective_aspect/PX3wkfcb">imperfective</a> aspects. </p><p>In the grammars of many languages the two terms are used interchangeably. This is also the case with <a href="/facts/English_grammar/zBGLlTYH">English</a>: a construction such as <i>"He is washing"</i> may be described either as <i><a href="/facts/Present_continuous_(English)/t0g772P3">present continuous</a></i> or as <i>present progressive</i>. However, there are certain languages for which two different aspects are distinguished. In <a href="/facts/Mandarin_Chinese/yxvDg67C">Chinese</a>, for example, <i>progressive</i> aspect denotes a current action, as in "he is getting dressed", while <i>continuous</i> aspect denotes a current state, as in "he is wearing fine clothes". </p><p>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 <a href="/facts/Turkish_language/C5X56Ijp">Turkish</a> count the -iyor form as a <a href="/facts/Present_tense/Dlum8nSr">present tense</a>; some as a progressive tense; and some as both a continuous (nonhabitual imperfective) and a progressive (continuous non-stative) aspect. </p>