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Nkspb Posted 11 years ago
Grammar
The Present Continuous for states
Hello everybody.
I watched a video and heard something like this:
"In order to understand how it works, you should know how the operating system is working under the hood."
As I understand, the present continuous can't be used for unchanged states (with some exceptions when using with "constantly", "always" etc. talking of negative things or with emotions).
Hence here "is working" relates to the about time when we're doing something on the system. And if to say "how the system works" - that would have a slightly different meaning. Am I right? Thanks!
P.S. I hope I've managed to make my question clear
I watched a video and heard something like this:
"In order to understand how it works, you should know how the operating system is working under the hood."
As I understand, the present continuous can't be used for unchanged states (with some exceptions when using with "constantly", "always" etc. talking of negative things or with emotions).
Hence here "is working" relates to the about time when we're doing something on the system. And if to say "how the system works" - that would have a slightly different meaning. Am I right? Thanks!
P.S. I hope I've managed to make my question clear
Top answer
Yes, "is working" does have more of a sense of activity happening now.
- Yes, "is working" does have more of a sense of activity happening now.
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2 Answers
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nkspbhow the operating system is working under the hoodThis suggests "while you are using it".
"how it works under the hood" suggests something more like 'at any time', 'in the abstract'.
CJ
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