Present Progressive Tense: What It Is and How To Use It

Do you know what the present progressive tense is? This article will provide you with all of the information you need on present progressive tenses, including its definition, usage, example sentences, and more!

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What is the present progressive tense?

According to Walden, there are many different forms of verbs in the English language, from a simple form of the verb to complex:

  •   Future progressive tense
  •   Simple future tense
  •   Present participle tense
  •   Simple conditional tense
  •   Future perfect tense
  •   Perfect passive tense
  •   Subjunctive tense
  •   To-infinitive tense
  •   Conditional progressive tense
  •   Present perfect progressive/continuous tense
  •   Conditional tense
  •   Past perfect tense
  •   Past progressive/continuous tense
  •   Imperative tense
  •   Bare infinitive tense
  •   Future perfect progressive tense
  •   Simple present tense
  •   Conditional perfect tense
  •   Past perfect progressive tense
  •   Present progressive tense
  •   Present continuous tense
  •   Simple past tense
  •   Infinitive tense
  •   Present perfect tense
  •   Indicative tense
  •   Gerund tense or gerund phrase 
  •   Present indicative tense
  •   Present perfect continuous tense
  •   Past progressive tense
  •   Present perfect progressive tense 
  •   Conditional perfect progressive tense
  •   Past participle tense

Today we will cover the present progressive tense. Progressive tenses, also known as continuous tenses, describe things that are in progress. This verb tense can be used to form affirmatives or negatives of a current action. Like the past progressive and future progressive tense, the present progressive or present continuous tense is used to express actions that are ongoing. The present continuous can be used to form a positive sentence or a negative sentence. These can also be used to form and answer wh-questions such as time expressions and explanations. In English grammar, we add ing to the stems of the verb form.

The present progressive also exists in Spanish. Here, the word “estar” is conjugated for the subject and then the last syllable/last letter of the action verb (second verb) is replaced with ando for an ar verb, endo for an er verb, or iendo for an ir verb.

Many different languages also contain words that mean present progressive tense. You may notice that some of these translations of present progressive tense look and sound similar to one another. These are called cognates, which are words and phrases in different languages that likely have the same root or language of origin, causing them to sound the same. The below list of translations of present progressive tense is provided by Word Sense

  • Turkish: şimdiki zaman‎
  • German: Verlaufsform der Gegenwart‎
  • French: présent progressif‎ (masc.)
  • Russian: настоя́щее продо́лженное вре́мя‎ (neut.), настоя́щее дли́тельное вре́мя‎ (neut.)
  • Finnish: kestopreesens‎
  • Mandarin: 現在進行時‎, 现在进行时‎ (xiànzài jìnxíng shí)
  • Dutch: duurvorm onvoltooid tegenwoordige tijd (d.o.t.t.) (masc.)

What are examples of the present progressive tense?

Take a look at the below list of present progressive examples from English Study Page:

  •  Look! A car is coming.
  •  She is always talking.
  •  At present, children are doing a lot of things that can not be done before.
  •  These students are constantly complaining about everything.
  •  She is having breakfast at the moment.
  •  My mother is cooking dinner in the kitchen now.
  •  She is listening the music now.
  •  While you are studying, I will make a cake.
  •  We are currently looking for individuals who have experience in customer service.
  •  You are always coming to work late. You must wake up early.
  •  She is studying to become a science teacher.
  •  I am learning to play guitar.
  •  We are learning English at this moment.
  •  We will rent a flat but fort he time being we are staying at our friend’s house.
  •  You are starting work tomorrow.
  •  He is forever speaking. Someone should silence him.
  •  My sister is coming with us to the party tonight.
  •  I am talking to the teacher after this lesson.
  •  The gardener is working in the garden at this time.
  •  We are working on a new project.
  •  Sarah is posting on social media about her vacation in New Zealand, London, France, and more.
  •  Do you promise we are playing tennis tomorrow? 
  •  Are you seeing these dynamic advertisements all over town? They are not my taste.
  •  She is learning Spanish for her new job.

What are other grammar terms?

There are many different literary and grammatical techniques and devices that you might see when you are reading prose or poetry. It is important to recognize these terms because they are always used for some purpose. Knowing these devices can help readers understand the author’s deeper meaning and why they are using such a device. Take a look at the below list of grammatical devices from OED and see how many you know! Then try researching ones that are unfamiliar to you. 

  •   construed (const., constr.)
  •   present participle
  •   reflexive
  •   attributive
  •   combination
  •   compound | compounding
  •   active
  •   impersonal (impers.)
  •   combining form (comb. form)
  •   count noun
  •   passive infinitive
  •   main clause
  •   objective
  •   perfect
  •   nominative
  •   pro-form
  •   element
  •   premodify | premodifier
  •   ellipsis | elliptical
  •   modify | modifier
  •   plural
  •   agree | agreement
  •   direct question
  •   past tense
  •   indirect passive
  •   feminine
  •   similative
  •   absolute (absol.)
  •   comparative
  •   interjection
  •   optative
  •   concrete
  •   abstract
  •   direct speech
  •   prepositional passive
  •   genitive
  •   base form
  •   imperative (imper.)
  •   masculine
  •   double object
  •   stem
  •   morpheme
  •   third-person
  •   article
  •   dative
  •   complementary
  •   vocative
  •   pronoun (pron.)
  •   number
  •   collocation | collocate
  •   adverb (adv.)
  •   transitive
  •   personal pronoun
  •   common noun
  •   predicative
  •   adjective
  •   possessive pronoun
  •   subjective
  •   non-referential
  •   agent noun
  •   phrase (phr.)
  •   infinitive
  •   preposition (prep.)
  •   interrogative
  •   participial adjective
  •   auxiliary verb | auxiliary
  •   prepositional object
  •   tense
  •   intransitive
  •   inflection | inflected | inflectional
  •   demonstrative
  •   subordinate clause
  •   adverbial | adverbially
  •   antecedent
  •   indicative
  •  proper noun | proper name
  •   subject
  •   neuter
  •   causative
  •   main verb
  •   anaphoric
  •   mass noun
  •   head
  •   modal verb | modal auxiliary verb | modal auxiliary
  •   relative
  •   first person
  •   passive
  •   quasi-
  •   present tense
  •   apposition
  •   copular verb | copula
  •   indirect question
  •   second person
  •   cognate object
  •   direct object
  •   construction
  •   subjunctive
  •   gerund
  •   appositive
  •   finite
  •   to-infinitive
  •   nominal relative | nominal relative clause
  •   part of speech
  •   simple
  •   parenthetical | parenthetically
  •   parasynthetic
  •   special use
  •   pleonasm | pleonastic
  •   dual
  •   clause
  •   verbal noun
  •   unmarked genitive
  •   progressive
  •   locative
  •   mood
  •   periphrasis | periphrastic
  •   determiner
  •   sentence adverb |sentence adverbial
  •   complement
  •   conditional
  •   noun phrase
  •   indefinite
  •   declarative
  •   anticipatory
  •   filler
  •   positive
  •   possessive
  •   gender
  •   definite article
  •   indirect speech
  •   possessive adjective
  •   conjunction (conj.)
  •   intensifier
  •   object | direct object | indirect object
  •   apodosis and protasis
  •   that-clause
  •   indirect object
  •   collective noun
  •   participle | past participle | present participle
  •   verb (v.)
  •   zero
  •   superlative
  •   person
  •   singular
  •   prepositional phrase
  •   protasis
  •   noun (n.)
  •   non-finite
  •   phrasal verb
  •   case
  •   prefix
  •   instrumental
  •   cataphoric
  •   accusative
  •   postmodify | postmodifier
  •   bare infinitive

Overall, the present progressive tense describes continuous action, near future plans, and forms question sentences.

Sources:

  1. Glossary of grammatical terms | OED 
  2. Verb Forms: “-ing,” Infinitives, and Past Participles – Grammar – Academic Guides | Walden University 
  3. Present Continuous | English Study Page
  4. present continuous: meaning, translation, synonyms | Word Sense