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Anglista2008 Posted 15 years ago
Grammar

The simple present for an ongoing action

Howdy,

Here are some sentences:
  • Here comes your mother.
  • There he goes. Look at him walk.
Obviously they're ongoing actions at the time of speaking. How come we use the present simple here? And would there be any difference if we said:
  • Here's coming your mother.
  • There's he going. Look at him walking.
For some reason they sound unnatural...

  

Top answer

* Here's coming your mother. * There's he going. - Not good!!

— AlpheccaStars

  • * Here's coming your mother.
  • * There's he going.
  • - Not good!!
  • It's the word order.
  • The progressive tenses don't work with this type of inverted word order.
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1 Answers
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* Here's coming your mother.
* There's he going.

- Not good!! It's the word order. The progressive tenses don't work with this type of inverted word order.

Your mother's coming here. - OK, but has a different meaning than "Here comes your mother."
The only inversion is for questions:

Is your mother coming here?

He's going there. - OK, but h
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