{"id":493,"date":"2009-01-27T12:00:10","date_gmt":"2009-01-27T18:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/blog\/2009\/01\/they-are-wanting-a-response-by-january-31st\/"},"modified":"2011-05-31T13:16:59","modified_gmt":"2011-05-31T19:16:59","slug":"they-are-wanting-a-response-by-january-31st","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2009\/01\/they-are-wanting-a-response-by-january-31st\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;They are wanting a response by January 31st.&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I heard someone say this yesterday during a conference call.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Problem:<\/strong><br \/>\nThe continuous inflection of the present tense is unnecessary in this statement.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Explanation:<\/strong><br \/>\nThe label &#8220;present continuous&#8221; refers to a continuous inflection of the present tense.<\/p>\n<p>The phrase &#8220;are wanting&#8221; is an example of the &#8220;present continuous&#8221; form of the verb &#8220;want&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>As <a target=\"_explained\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Grammatical_tense\">explained<\/a> at Wikipedia, the &#8220;present continuous&#8221; form is prevalently used in English to express current action but is rare or absent in other Indo-European languages.<\/p>\n<p>There are at least two hypotheses about why American English speakers often choose the &#8220;present continuous&#8221; form of a verb over the &#8220;present simple&#8221; form:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>One hypothesis is that saying something like &#8220;They are wanting &#8230;&#8221; sounds more educated to the speaker than saying simply &#8220;They want &#8230;&#8221;. One might even label this as a linguistic hypercorrection.<\/li>\n<li>Another hypothesis is that using the &#8220;present continuous&#8221; form instead of the &#8220;present simple&#8221; form effectively <em>softens<\/em> the impact on the listener or reader.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>No matter which hypothesis you prefer, the &#8220;present continuous&#8221; form is often unnecessary and tends to interfere with clear, direct communication.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Solution:<\/strong><br \/>\n&#8220;They want a response by January 31st.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I heard someone say this yesterday during a conference call. Problem: The continuous inflection of the present tense is unnecessary in this statement. Explanation: The label &#8220;present continuous&#8221; refers to a continuous inflection of the present tense. The phrase &#8220;are wanting&#8221; is an example of the &#8220;present continuous&#8221; form of the verb &#8220;want&#8221;. As explained&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,32,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hypercorrection","category-tenses","category-verbs"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>&quot;They are wanting a response by January 31st.&quot; - Kirk Mahoney . com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2009\/01\/they-are-wanting-a-response-by-january-31st\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"&quot;They are wanting a response by January 31st.&quot; - Kirk Mahoney . com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I heard someone say this yesterday during a conference call. Problem: The continuous inflection of the present tense is unnecessary in this statement. Explanation: The label &#8220;present continuous&#8221; refers to a continuous inflection of the present tense. The phrase &#8220;are wanting&#8221; is an example of the &#8220;present continuous&#8221; form of the verb &#8220;want&#8221;. As explained&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2009\/01\/they-are-wanting-a-response-by-january-31st\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Kirk Mahoney . com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-01-27T18:00:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-05-31T19:16:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kirk\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kirk\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2009\/01\/they-are-wanting-a-response-by-january-31st\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2009\/01\/they-are-wanting-a-response-by-january-31st\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Kirk\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/#\/schema\/person\/ef2d2a9df1a7b457aacaa1b36d0ffe3a\"},\"headline\":\"&#8220;They are wanting a response by January 31st.&#8221;\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-01-27T18:00:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-05-31T19:16:59+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2009\/01\/they-are-wanting-a-response-by-january-31st\/\"},\"wordCount\":195,\"articleSection\":[\"Hypercorrection\",\"Tenses\",\"Verbs\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2009\/01\/they-are-wanting-a-response-by-january-31st\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2009\/01\/they-are-wanting-a-response-by-january-31st\/\",\"name\":\"\\\"They are wanting a response by January 31st.\\\" - Kirk Mahoney . com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-01-27T18:00:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-05-31T19:16:59+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/#\/schema\/person\/ef2d2a9df1a7b457aacaa1b36d0ffe3a\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2009\/01\/they-are-wanting-a-response-by-january-31st\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2009\/01\/they-are-wanting-a-response-by-january-31st\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2009\/01\/they-are-wanting-a-response-by-january-31st\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"&#8220;They are wanting a response by January 31st.&#8221;\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/\",\"name\":\"Kirk Mahoney . com\",\"description\":\"Better Communication for Smart People\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/#\/schema\/person\/ef2d2a9df1a7b457aacaa1b36d0ffe3a\",\"name\":\"Kirk\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9a8752dc5ed4333a83c8044afd0530fb70bcf58c955e7b5cbadbbd7b4c82c7cd?s=96&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9a8752dc5ed4333a83c8044afd0530fb70bcf58c955e7b5cbadbbd7b4c82c7cd?s=96&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9a8752dc5ed4333a83c8044afd0530fb70bcf58c955e7b5cbadbbd7b4c82c7cd?s=96&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Kirk\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/blog\/author\/Kirk\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\"They are wanting a response by January 31st.\" - Kirk Mahoney . com","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2009\/01\/they-are-wanting-a-response-by-january-31st\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"\"They are wanting a response by January 31st.\" - Kirk Mahoney . com","og_description":"I heard someone say this yesterday during a conference call. 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