Progressive Tenses

 

Present Progressive Tense

This tense shows what is happening right now.

This follows the sentence pattern:

                          Subject + be verb (is/are/am) +  the “ing” form of the Verb

If the subject is singular, "is" is used. If plural, "are".

examples:

"Teddy is eating an apple."

Teddy - subject 

is - be verb 

"is" is used because the subject "Teddy" is singular (single person). 

eating- "ing" word  

   

"They are eating apples."

"are" is used because the subject "they" is plural.

If asked, “What are you doing?”, the following can be example answers:

"I am eating bananas."

"I am walking to school."

"I am riding a bus." 

Past Progressive Tense

Past Progressive Tense shows an action that was continuing at a certain time in the past.

This follows the sentence pattern:

                            Subject + be verb (was/were) + "ing" form of the Verb

If the subject is singular,  the "was" is used. If the subject is plural, "were".

examples:

                  "Teddy was eating an apple."

Teddy is just one person, hence "was" plus -ing verb "eating" is used.

                   "Mandy and Teddy were eating apples."

"were" was used based on the fact that Mandy and Teddy are two people, making the subject plural. Plus the "ing" form of the verb "eating".

Future Progressive Tense

This tense shows something that will be happening continuously at a time in the future.

This follows the sentence pattern:

                        Subject + will+ be + "ing" form of the Verb 

 The same pattern will be used regardless of the subject. This means to say whether the subject is singular or plural, the sentence pattern will remain the same.

          examples: 

               "Anita will be walking to class. "

                 "Rey and Anita will be buying a new bag." 

Notice both sentences. Sentence 1 has a singular subject while sentence 2 has a plural one, but their sentence pattern never changed.