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Continuous Tense
DEFINITION
A tense of verbs which is used to describe the action that is (happening in present), was (happen in the past), or will be (happen in the future) in progress at a certain time.
Eg- I am walking.
I was walking.
I Will be walking.
- Present continuous tense
- The present continuous (also called present progressive) is a verb tense which is used to show that an ongoing action is happening now, either at the moment of speech or now in a larger sense.
- We use the Present Continuous Tense in two situations:
- When we talk about something we are currently doing
- When we talk about something that we have planned to do in the near future.
Examples:
- I am eating right now.
- I am planning to buy a new pencil case.
- I am going to Shimla tomorrow.
- We are eating out tonight.
- Abdul Rehman is arriving this evening.
- Past Continuous Tense
- The past continuous tense, also known as the past progressive tense, refers to a continuing action or state that was happening at some point in the past.
- The past continuous tense is formed by combining the past tense of to be (i.e., was/were) with the verb’s present participle (-ing word).
- We use the Past Continuous Tense in two situations:
- The Past Continuous is used to denote an action going on at some time in the past. The time of the action may or may not be indicated.
- This tense is also used with always, continually, etc. for persistent habits in the past.
Examples:
- We were watching TV all evening.
- It was getting darker.
- The light went out while I was reading.
- When I saw him, he was playing chess.
- He was always bullying other people.
- Future Continuous Tense
- The future continuous tense, sometimes also referred to as the future progressive tense, is a verb tense that indicates that something will occur in the future and continue for an expected length of time.
- It is formed using the construction will + be + the present participle (the root verb + -ing).
- We use the Future Continuous Tense to talk about actions which will be in progress at a time in the future.
Example:
- I suppose it will be raining when we start.
- This time tomorrow, I will be sitting on the beach in Singapore.
- Please don’t come at 5 o’clock as I will be watching the tennis match on TV.
RULES OF SENTENCE FORMATION
TENSE |
PAST | PRESENT | FUTURE |
CONTINUOUS | WAS/WERE + VERB + ING | IS/ARE + VERB + ING | WILL/SHALL + BE+ VERB + ING |
VERB = BE | WAS/WERE + ING | IS/AM/ARE + ING | WILL BE + ING |
EXAMPLE: |
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VERB = EAT |
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