Present Progressive or Past Progressive Continuous Tense Tips

hi everybody my name is Alisha in this

episode I’m going to talk about the
present progressive tense and the past

progressive tense you might also know
these as the continuous tense but many

people have questions about the
difference between these two so I’m

going to talk about a few different ways
that we can use these grammar points and

some patterns that you might commonly
see don’t let’s begin first let’s look

at in general the progressive or the
continuous tense when should we use it

we use these tenses for continuing
actions so their actions that are

temporary so they’re only for a short
period of time or for a limited period

of time so these are ongoing actions
during a certain time period so the time

period can be short it can be very long
many years but it’s something that’s

temporary so depending on the situation
you can choose to apply the progressive

or the continuous tense it just depends
on kind of the the action and you have

the period of time so it’s sort of up to
you to make that decision in some cases

but we’ll see a few examples of maybe
some common ways to use this so another

point I want to make about the
progressive tense is that there are some

verbs that are rarely used or it’s
fairly uncommon for these verbs to be

used in the progressive tense so it’s a
category really a verb so that means for

example your mental state verbs like
think or know or understand and

emotional verbs like for example like or
love so these are verbs which typically

we don’t use in the progressive tense of
course sometimes we do like I’m thinking

about for example is a common one but
verbs for example the verb like we don’t

generally say very commonly I am liking
or he is loving or something like that

generally we use these more for the
simple present tense or the simple past

tense so they’re a bit more common
in in that type of grammar so we won’t

see that so much today okay
so with this in mind let’s begin with

the present tense the present
progressive tense or the present

continuous tense a few things I want to
talk about with the present form first

as we’ve talked about already up here is
for actions that are happening now so

its present tense meaning they’re
occurring now something that is

happening now so basically I am teaching
for example so remember we see the

progressive tense in this ing ending
this ending on our verbs in this case I

am teaching it’s something happening now
you are listening in this case ing form

it is raining when we talk about the
weather or he is taking a shower so

something that is happening now it’s
just a short period of time

a temporary action we can use the
present progressive tense to talk about

that so to kind of give a visual of this
then I’ve created a timeline up here in

the top on the top right so this point
here this is the present I’m talking

about now if you can imagine this is an
action that is happening around to the

present time so maybe I started teaching
for example a few minutes ago

I’m teaching now and then in the future
maybe it’s going to finish very soon so

this is maybe a good way to visualize
the present progressive tense something

that’s continuing and it’s going to end
maybe in the near future depending on

the action so that might be helpful the
second point I want to talk about with

the present progressive tense though is
how we can use it for trends so here I

talked about how we use it for actions
like that we are in control over someone

else’s in control of we can also use the
present progressive tense however for

trends so something happening in your
community or in your society for example

so I have here lots of people are
watching black mirror on Netflix these

days so this could be like one example
this is an example perhaps of a recent

trend I’ve noticed here I’ve got the
progressive tense to show that maybe

it’s temporary it’s a
and really another example Twitter is

becoming a place for up-to-the-minute
news for example so this is another

example something that’s just kind of
happening recently or some trend you’ve

noticed recently you could apply this or
you could explain this rather with the

present progressive tense all right
final plan our final sorry final use of

this I want to talk about it’s for
future plans so we can use the present

progressive tense actually to talk about
future plans it’s slightly different

this this grammar point is slightly
different but you will see it it’s

similar to going to using going to if
you have a plan that you are sure it’s

100% definite you are going to do that
thing you can describe that plan using

the progressive tense so for example I’m
going to the beach tomorrow

so here I’ve used going in the
progressive tense this means this is

something I am definitely going to do
I’m going to the beach tomorrow but you

will see this progressive tense form
used same thing in the second example

sentence we are baking a cake for my
friend’s birthday party so again a

temporary action not something we do
every day kind of a special action

something that’s only for a limited time
period but it’s something I’ve decided

to do it’s definite in the future
so I can use this progressive form of

the verb to describe that so these are
three ways that you may see the present

progressive form used okay let’s
continue on then to the past progressive

so the rules that we talked about for
present progressive like actions that

are happening now can still apply in the
past it’s just that the action has

already completed so to give a visual
then this is an action that was

continuing in the past it’s finished
we’re done with this action it’s it’s

over it has stopped but it was
continuing at some point so we often

include a specific point in time along
with this you might not necessarily see

this here because it’s an action
happening now but in the past if we need

to explain clearly when an action was
happening we can attach this specific

point in time so let’s look at a cup
of examples first I was doing my

homework at 8 p.m. last night so here I
was doing my homework here is our past

progressive tense and here we have the
specific point in time 8:00 p.m. last

night so when was I doing my homework at
8:00 p.m. last night if I say I was

doing my homework we don’t know when if
I say I am doing my homework it means

now so it’s very clear therefore in the
past we don’t know when the action was

happening unless we attach a specific
point in time let’s look at one more

example he was driving to work at 9:00
this morning so here is our specific

point in time
so both of these sentences it’s like

when would I use the sentence how do I
know when I need to use this sentence

these are perhaps responses to a
question like what were you doing last

night or what were you doing this
morning what was he doing this morning

if you need information about someone’s
activities you can use a question like

that and expect to get an answer like
this so sometimes these questions imply

a little bit of like suspicion like what
were you doing last night or what was he

doing this morning so something that you
don’t know some action a temporary

action you don’t know about another
person so there might be a little

element of suspicion here but these
aren’t ways to talk about a continuing

action in the past okay I want to talk
about two other patterns though the

first one is for interrupted actions so
we can use the past progressive

to talk about an interrupted action and
this is something that we’ll see we use

the word when to describe this so first
I want to introduce the examples and

then I want to talk about it more let’s
look at this I was listening to music

when the phone rang so here I have my
past progressive was listening to music

here I have when when the phone rang and
here the second action in the sentence

is in the simple past tense so with past
tense I have here so this is the action

that was continuing and then
something happened that stopped this

action so on our timeline if you want to
imagine it this point is like an action

continuing that then stopped and was
replaced by a different action actually

that they should probably be in the past
though here so something in the past was

continuing something happened in this
case the phone rang something happened

here and my action maybe changed to a
different action this is sort of a

visualization of what happened in this
sentence when shows us the point at

which something changed when shows us
that moment of interruption so we see

past progressive in the first part when
to show the point of change and simple

past tense to show the action that
interrupted the first action so there’s

a lot happening here let’s look at
another example he was cleaning his

house when the electricity went out so
when the electricity went out means

stopped or turned off the electricity
went out it went it went off

so here again past progressive he was
cleaning his house when is my point of

interruption when the electricity went
out so he’s cleaning cleaning cleaning

and then the electricity went out so
something happened and then maybe he had

to change his action here so we use when
and the simple past tense to show an

interrupted action alright last thing I
want to talk about here is for

simultaneous actions we can use the past
progressive tense simultaneous means at

the same time as something else so two
actions happening at the same time for

this one you’ll notice that we use the
word while while is used here so let’s

look at the examples I was listening to
music while doing my homework here I

have the progressive tense in both parts
of the sentence and I’ve connected it

with while in this case so while shows
that the two things are happening at the

same time so you could say I was
listening to music and doing my homework

that’s pretty clear but if you really
want to emphasize that nuance of those

two things
opening at the same time you can use

while let’s look at the last example she
was texting her friends while cooking

dinner
so this while shows us that these two

things are happening at the same time
this part shows us it was happening in

the past as well so these are a few
situations where you might see the past

progressive tense but they’re referring
to continuing actions and maybe an

action that stopped or maybe an action
that is going at the same time as

another action so there’s a lot of stuff
we can do with the past progressive and

the present progressive tense all right
so I know that was a lot of information

but I hope that it was helpful for you
if you have any questions or comments or

if you just want to try to make a
sentence please feel free in the comment

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thanks very much for watching this

episode and I will see you again soon
bye bye