Do you know what the perfect progressive tenses are? This article will provide you with all of the information you need on perfect progressive tenses, including its definition, usage, example sentences, and more!
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Many people are familiar with the simple tenses, including the simple present tense, simple future tense, and the simple past tense. These verb tenses are often used to describe a completed actions, habits, a past action that is over or something that is going on for an indefinite time. The past tense of the verb often ends in ed save for some irregular verbs, and forms simple sentences. These can be affirmative or negative sentences, such as “Jenny finished her homework.”
However, if we were only able to use simple tenses, our sentences would quickly become boring. This is why English has so much more than simple forms of verbs. Different tenses, also known as the different aspects of a verb, are used to discuss actions in different periods of time or conditions throughout the flow of time.
Today, we will cover the perfect progressive tenses, also known as the perfect progressive aspect. According to Your Dictionary, progressive tenses, also known as continuous tenses, are a collective term to describe ongoing actions that are in progress. These are also called continuous forms which make use of the present participle or past participle in a verb phrase of activity verbs with auxiliary verbs to show ongoing actions or habits. These do not show completed action, unlike the simple tenses. There are many forms of the perfect progressive tenses:
Instead of the simple “Jenny finished her homework,” we can now say, “As Jenny was finishing her homework, her father burst in to reveal that the family had won a trip to Paris.” This tense uses the present participle of the main verb or past participle of the main verb.
What are examples of the perfect progressive tense?
See if you can identify the perfect progressive verb in the examples from Your Dictionary!
I was having a terrifying dream when the alarm clock went off at six o’clock this morning.
The amusement park will be increasing ticket prices later this year.
Will you be eating a plant-based diet in two months?
Kevin Miller is a growth marketer with an extensive background in Search Engine Optimization, paid acquisition and email marketing. He is also an online editor and writer based out of Los Angeles, CA. He studied at Georgetown University, worked at Google and became infatuated with English Grammar and for years has been diving into the language, demystifying the do's and don'ts for all who share the same passion! He can be found online here.
Kevin
November 16, 2021
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