Progressive tense
The progressive or continuous tenses of a verb are those denoting an incomplete action in progress at a specific time.
In English, the three simple progressives are formed with conjugations of the auxiliary verb be and the present participle of a verb:
- Present progressive: I am eating, passive I am being eaten.
- Past progressive: I was eating, passive I was being eaten.
- Future progressive: I will (or shall) be eating, passive I will be being eaten.
See perfect tense for the perfect progressive tenses.
See also: grammatical aspect.
