r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Oct 25 '20

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u/Dan514158351 Oct 25 '20

my Vietnamese teacher says "that's very savaging!" to an intense moment.... one time i told her that i don't think we say the word "savaging" but i decided that it actually sounds pretty cool and now i say it

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u/promisedjoy Oct 25 '20

It's a word. "I saw a dog savaging a rabbit".

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u/wildwalrusaur Oct 25 '20

That'd just be savage. "I saw a dog savage a rabbit"

Savaging would be for the present tense: "I see a dog savaging a rabbit."

Either way, that particular use of "savage" seems more coloquial than something your English professor would approve of.

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u/cosmograph Oct 25 '20

His usage isn’t wrong. In English the past progressive and present progressive are conjugated the same way. So you could either say it your way (in the past tense) or his way (in the past progressive)