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Which one of the following is better or more correct?

Is someone covering this event?

Is someone going to cover this event?

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1 Answer

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They are both correct, but mean different things.

Is someone covering this event?

asks if someone is currently responsible for it.

Is someone going to cover this event?

implies that either nobody is (yet) responsible for it, or the asker is unaware of someone being assigned to it.

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They don't have to mean different things. A newspaper editor could use either version in his "team meeting" to ask whether anyone is currently assigned to cover the event (which could be due to happen at any time in the future). – FumbleFingers Oct 21 '11 at 17:01
That's true. The exact detailed differences between the two, I think, is rather vague, and in most cases, either would be correct/understood. I tried to highlight in my answer the situations where they do in fact have different meanings – Jim Oct 21 '11 at 17:04
Precisely. There are definitely contexts where the two have exactly the same meaning. If the event is already ongoing the second can't be used at all, but offhand I can't think of any other context where they are both valid and unambiguously have different meanings. Unless you vary the inflection, which is kinda cheating. – FumbleFingers Oct 21 '11 at 17:18
Fortunately, OP is only asking about correctness, which is a far simpler issue in this case. – Jim Oct 21 '11 at 17:21

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