Progressive and Continuous Tenses
Form and use the progressive (continuous) verb tenses — past progressive (was walking), present progressive (am walking), and future progressive (will be walking) — to convey ongoing actions at different times
What a learner can do afterwards
- Write sentences using past progressive to describe an action that was ongoing at a particular time, e.g. 'She was reading when the phone rang'
- Distinguish present progressive from simple present, e.g. 'I am eating lunch' (right now) vs 'I eat lunch at noon' (habitual)
- Form the future progressive using 'will be' + present participle to describe an action that will be ongoing, e.g. 'Tomorrow at 3pm I will be travelling'
The lesson
A progressive tense tells about an action that is still going on, not finished yet. You build it with a form of the verb 'be' plus the main verb plus -ing, like 'was walking' or 'will be walking'.
Present progressive tells what is happening right now. 'James eats breakfast at 7 every day' is a habit, so it uses simple present. 'James is eating breakfast right now' shows the action in progress, so it uses present progressive.
Past progressive tells what was happening at a certain past moment, often when something else interrupted it. 'She was reading when the phone rang' means the reading was already going on when the ringing interrupted it. Future progressive works the same way, but at a future moment. 'Tomorrow at 3pm, Mia will be swimming' means the swimming will already be going on at that exact time.
To spot the tense, look at the helper verb. Was or were means past, am, is, or are means present, and will be means future. The main verb always ends in -ing.
Progressive tenses pair a form of be with a verb ending in -ing to show an action that was, is, or will be in progress.
Watch it
Where it sits
Where this leads
Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.
8 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.