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The present continuous, also called the present progressive or present imperfect, is a verb form used in modern English that combines the present tense with the continuous aspect. [1] It is formed by the present tense form of be and the present participle of a verb. The present continuous is generally used to describe something that is taking ...
The simple present is the most commonly used verb form in English, accounting for more than half of verbs in spoken English. [1] It is called "simple" because its basic form consists of a single word (like write or writes), in contrast with other present tense forms such as the present progressive (is writing) and present perfect (has written ...
The present progressive or present continuous form combines present tense with progressive aspect. It thus refers to an action or event conceived of as having limited duration, taking place at the present time. It consists of a form of the simple present of be together with the present participle of the main verb and the ending -ing.
v. t. e. In linguistics, aspect is a grammatical category that expresses how a verbal action, event, or state, extends over time. For instance, perfective aspect is used in referring to an event conceived as bounded and unitary, without reference to any flow of time during the event ("I helped him"). Imperfective aspect is used for situations ...
Present tense. The present tense (abbreviated PRES or PRS) is a grammatical tense whose principal function is to locate a situation or event in the present time. [1] The present tense is used for actions which are happening now. In order to explain and understand present tense, it is useful to imagine time as a line on which the past tense, the ...
Continuous and progressive aspects. The continuous and progressive aspects (abbreviated CONT and PROG) are grammatical aspects that express incomplete action ("to do") or state ("to be") in progress at a specific time: they are non-habitual, imperfective aspects. In the grammars of many languages the two terms are used interchangeably.
Apart from what are called the simple present (write, writes) and simple past (wrote), there are also continuous (progressive) forms (am/is/are/was/were writing), perfect forms (have/has/had written, and the perfect continuous have/has/had been writing), future forms (will write, will be writing, will have written, will have been writing), and ...
t. e. Verbs constitute one of the main parts of speech (word classes) in the English language. Like other types of words in the language, English verbs are not heavily inflected. Most combinations of tense, aspect, mood and voice are expressed periphrastically, using constructions with auxiliary verbs. Generally, the only inflected forms of an ...