It’s not a gerund there. It’s the continuous aspect. Unless I’m forgetting something about my English grammar. At any rate, it sounds odd to my ears, from Chicago. “We need” or “We are in need of”, but “we are needing” just sounds a bit off. I don’t think there’s anything technically incorrect about the usage; it just doesn’t sound natural in my dialect.
I came in here to post that but @Mighty_Mouse beat me to it. For sure - I’ve worked with a lot of Indian citizens. English is a first language for them (usually along with another language or two) and in conversation that’s just a more common way of saying things than in American English.
ETA: It’s not even a strange use of tense in American English if you swap out the words. “I am needing a cup of coffee” may sound odd, but “I’m jonesing for a cup of coffee” sounds perfectly normal.
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Many of my coworkers whose primary language is English use the construction “We will be VERBING” when they could just say “We will VERB.” It puzzles me. Why not go with the simpler option?
I was thinking of the 22 listed in the constitution; had no idea the real number was so high.
I don’t think it’s Southern, I never heard it in Arkansas until two or three people who read his email messages began using it.
If you’re a college football fan, Deion Sanders, new head coach for the Colorado Buffaloes has popularized the phrase: We Comin’
But that’s the usual usage of English present progressive to describe the future (though slangified. “We are coming” → “We comin’.”) We wouldn’t say “we come” in most cases.
That was my guess. I sometimes hear native speakers of the South Texas dialect of Spanish saying “I didn’t drink my pill this morning.” This happens because in that dialect the verbs take and drink both translate as “tomar”.
What I know is that the way English divides its simple present and present progressive is different than in other languages. The most common errors I’m aware of are using the present tense for things happening right now (e.g. “I was the dishes right now.”) and using the present progressive for habitual things (“I am eating cereal every day.”) But using the progressive for stative verbs is also common (“I am wanting to go” instead of “I want to go” or “I am knowing the answer.”)
The second one seems to be particularly peculiar to English, from what I’ve read.
FWIW, and I could be completely wrong, but my assumption is that most languages don’t have anything like the progressive aspect and so ESL courses have to emphasize and drill it. The result is that it is overused. I don’t think any of us can give a rule describing where it is appropiate and where it isn’t. Certainly I can’t (and I did once study linguistics).
This reminds me of the time my Dutch post-doc, whose English was really excellent recoiled when he heard me say “I will …”. He told me he had been drilled for hours to say “I shall …”. I explained that that rule was essentially dead in North America. But the real reason he had been drilled for hours was that it was easy to drill. It would have been much harder to drill the use of the progressive.
English teacher in Japan checking in. I used to teach in Taiwan.
Japanese has a progressive tense, but Japanese students still have to learn how to say it in English. Chinese doesn’t have a progressive tense, and Taiwanese students have to learn how to say it in English. Both take an equal amount of work.
Generally, people simply have an innate grammatical sense of their mother tongue, so while people can use their native language, few people can explain rules such as this. The rules concerning “the” and “a” are not trivial to break down, for example.
However, ESL / EFL teachers should be able to explain the rules concerning progressive tense and which verbs don’t generally take it. Any comprehensive ESL book will provide that. There are also many sources on the Internet. Here, for example, is one source that has four rules and explains why some words can be used both as in a progressive tense and not, and which situation.
No. Not at all.
Drills are drills and it’s trivial to create drills for the use of progressive.
“I am going to the park.”
repeat with 10 verbs.
“I need water.”
repeat with 10 nouns.
(Of course, drills are only part of the education process.)
I am only a little familiar with British English, but I do know there are different rules for “shall.” It’s quite possible that British English was being taught.
never mind