Re: Verb tenses question

> I have been looking all over for this and couldn't find it--I
> figured maybe
> someone here would know.
>
> I need a name for the verb tense that denotes an action that is beginning,
> in the same way that the 'perfect' tense denotes an action that
> has finished
> and the 'progressive' tense denotes one that is continuing.
>
> In English we don't have it and use forms like
>      'I was going to eat',
>      'I am about to eat',
>      'I will be getting ready to eat'
>
> The only example I know offhand is Esperanto's -onta, which I also cannot
> find a name for.
>
>      *Muke!
Well, technically you're talking aspect rather than tense here.  These are
often confused since they are such tightly coupled concepts in languages
like English.

The terms typically used for this aspect are "inchoative" or "ingressive"
aspect.

David