continuous tenses

Continuous Tenses

The word continuous means something that’s ongoing, happening right now.

The continuous tense uses the -ing ending of a verb (eating, speaking) in both the present and the past.

But wait, if the continuous tense is happening “right now,” how can you have a past continuous tense? Read on to find out!

·         Present Continuous

You can use the present continuous to talk about something ongoing that’s happening now or soon.

am/is/are + present participle:

I am watching the news.

Right now, you are reading this article. Maybe you’re drinking some coffee or taking a break from work. Later today you might be meeting some friends for dinner.

By adding the words “always” or “constantly” you can express the frequency of the action. For example: “My mother-in-law is always complaining,” or “that child is constantly crying.” These are not good things, but they do use the right tense!

·         Past Continuous

Was/were + present participle:

I was watching the news.

This tense is used to describe a continuous action that got interrupted. If you got a phone call late at night, you could say “I was sleeping last night when I got the call.”

You can also use this tense to say what you were doing at a specific time in the past. For example: “I was already writing at 6 in the morning,” or “yesterday in the evening I was eating dinner.”