Progressive/Continuous
Progressive/Continuous Tenses are ones that take the form be ____ing. They can be past, present, or future; the video takes a look at all three (they can also be perfect or not). A verb that is active in the moment is Progressive, and ongoing verbs are Continuous. There’s plenty of overlap between the two, so either term can be used for any tense that is temporary and unfinished.
What to Expect
Instead of looking at a specific tense (like Past Progressive or Present Perfect Continuous), this topic is about the Progressive/Continuous aspect as a whole. The features of this aspect apply to past, present, and future; they apply to perfect and non-perfect tenses.
The trick to progressive/continuous is to consider a time period as if through a window, which means the context is limited. If the verb stretches beyond the context – beyond the view through the window – use be ___ing.
Furthermore, this video looks covers the slight distinction between progressive tenses and continuous tenses for the sake of exploring the two primary uses of the form.
Prerequisites
Learners should already be familiar with the following:
Past, Present, and Future, at least the simple tenses of each.
This form is covered in the video, but it helps if learners are already familiar with it. Also, they’ll need to know spelling rules like dropping a silent ‘e’ or doubling certain consonants.
Forms of Be : ‘am’, ’is’, and ’are’ for present; ‘was’ and ‘were’ for past; ‘will be’ or ‘is going to be’ for future. Also, ‘be’ following any modals. Students should know how be changes in the present or past depending on the subject of the sentence.
Time Expressions, especially ones that determine whether the verb should be past present, or future. Indicators of coinciding verbs are also important – linkers like ‘when’, ‘while’, and ‘as’.
Proficiency Level
Students should know Present Progressive at the A1 level and Past Progressive at the A2 level. This means they start learning this aspect at early levels but get into more applications of it in intermediate levels.
It’s not generally taught as an aspect apart from specific tenses until advanced levels, but Insights recommends doing so earlier.
*actual starting level varies from one course-book series to the next
Progressive/Continuous
Use be ____ing for any verb that is temporary and unfinished.
Progressive: active in the moment
Continuous: ongoing (& descriptive)
Bonus Notes
Check out our interactive list of Stative Verbs to see roughly 100 words that shouldn’t be used for Continuous Tenses in most situations. Filter the table by different columns to group the terms in different ways and learn more about Stative Verbs.
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