wow:

I use these terms in place of coming and continuing because they convey a message that is otherwise lost.

To me an "upcoming" election is one that is close at hand; definitely closer at hand than is the coming election, but of course I can't tell you when a coming election becomes an upcoming election. (notice how I used the "l" so cleverly to avoid the gutter police???)

Ongoing to me implies that it's happening right now: the ongoing trial. If I susbstitute continuing I lose the immediacy of the event that I "feel" when I use ongoing. It might also be ambiguous for trial if you infer the use of the transitive verb continue.

This is to me why English has a million or more words, so we can include these subtle nuances and make our writing and speaking as rich as possible.

TEd




TEd