English Tenses

The past continuous tense, also called past progressive tense, talks about actions that were in progress at a specific time in the past. It's formed by using "was" or "were" with the -ing form of the verb. The past continuous helps in expressing an action that was ongoing at a specified time. It emphasizes the duration of something that occurred in the past and establishes context for something else in the past.

Simple Present Tense Rule:

Subject + base verb (s/es for he/she/it)

Example: She goes to college.

Shows habit, facts, and routines.

Present Continuous Tense Rule:

Subject + is/am/are + verb-ing

Example: She is going to college.

Shows actions happening now or temporary actions.

The rule of Present Continuous Tense in English Grammar is:

Subject + am/is/are + verb-ing + Object

Examples:

• I am playing.
• He is writing a letter.
• They are watching TV.

To identify the Present Continuous Tense in a sentence, follow these three steps:

1. Check if there is 'is/am/are' in the sentence.
2. Check for the –ing form of verb.
3. Lastly, confirm that the sentence is describing an action happening right now, a temporary ongoing action, or a future action.

The Present Continuous Tense is used in three cases:

Case 1: Actions happening right now

Examples:

• She is talking on the phone.
• We are ordering Pizza from Dominos for lunch.

Case 2: Temporary or ongoing actions

Examples:

• I am staying at my friend's house for a few days.
• She is going to Decathlon to buy a winter jacket.

Case 3: Future planned events (with a specific time frame)

Example:

• They are having a cricket match this Sunday.
• He is flying to London next week.

The present continuous tense is a verb tense describing actions happening in the present or to be continued in the future. The formula for Present Continuous Tense is Subject + is/am/are + present participle (verb + ing) + Object.

Examples:

• I am driving the car.
• They are going on a trip to Meghalaya.

The future continuous tense is formed with "will be" followed by the -ing form of the main verb. Forgetting either "will" or "be" results in an incorrect sentence, according to Clapingo. The main verb in the future continuous tense must be in the present participle form (-ing). For example, "I will be eating" is correct, while "I will be eat" is incorrect. Read more error areas in the page above.

While the Future Continuous tense talks about the action that will happen in future at a given point of time, it is not used for actions that happen suddenly or are not ongoing. Also, the Future Continuous tense is not used for with stative verbs like want, need, etc. For example, I will finish the work on Friday. (sudden completion); I will be wanting to go to the school." (incorrect).

For understanding and practicing the future continuous tense, books like "English Grammar in Use" by Raymond Murphy and "Practical English Usage" by Michael Swan are highly recommended. "Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics" is also a good book to study Future Continuous Tense.

The basic structure is subject + will be + verb (present participle). It's used to describe an action that will be ongoing at a specific time in the future. Future Continuous Tense is not used for actions that will be finished by a specific future point.