Asking for some clarification in English
Hello community!

I have a question about the following quote.

Here goes a description of a country...
"When you're walking down the road and pass a stranger, the very first question he or she will ask you is [...], the second question is [...]. They're just trying to make you feel comfortable.''

The question is, why do we use present continuous here? Is there a special rule for it that I haven't seen?
It looks like setting a scene for me, but I haven't found any data on Present Cont. usage for this purpose. I know that it can be expressed through other tenses like Present Simple (which I would do myself), but I really want to understand why we use PC here.

Thank you very much in advance!

Question

Asking for some clarification in English
Hello community!

I have a question about the following quote.

Here goes a description of a country...
"When you're walking down the road and pass a stranger, the very first question he or she will ask you is [...], the second question is [...]. They're just trying to make you feel comfortable.''

The question is, why do we use present continuous here? Is there a special rule for it that I haven't seen?
It looks like setting a scene for me, but I haven't found any data on Present Cont. usage for this purpose. I know that it can be expressed through other tenses like Present Simple (which I would do myself), but I really want to understand why we use PC here.

Thank you very much in advance!

Answer

The issue here is in the usage of the present tense in the main clause. 
Here we have the long main action (you're walking down the road) and ample of other short actions. So if the main and the longest action is in the present time, you should use present time, which is the present simple here, in other clauses.

Answer

Thank you very much, Rob, for your comment! 
It's just so unnatural that I wasn't able to find this information on Google.

And speaking about Russian, it's not the verb that is setting a scene, but the first word "Как"
which can be translated as 'As' in English.

Answer

You need to use a progressive form of the present because (as you suspected) you are setting the scene for what follows in the main clause.  English is a little different because we have a progressive form of the present tense that does not exist in other languages.  If you put the scene in the past, however, other languages behave in a similar way.  In French, you need to use the imparfait (imperfect) to set the scene in the past.  Given the little I know about Polish (the ancestral language of my father's family), I think you need to use an imperfective verb for past time ---- Gdy szliśmy ulicą.  I think Russian does the same thing (at least according to Google translate) --- Как мы шли по улице.

Answers · 4

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