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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 tense has a very predictable conjugation pattern even for verbs that are typically irregular, such as essere ("to be") and avere ("to have"). For verbs with reduced infinitives, the gerund uses the same stem as the imperfect (which sometimes corresponds to the stem of the 1st person singular indicative present).
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.
A number of multi-word constructions exist to express the combinations of present tense with the basic form of the present tense is called the simple present; there are also constructions known as the present progressive (or present continuous) (e.g. am writing), the present perfect (e.g. have written), and the present perfect progressive (e.g ...
Thus present progressive (present continuous) constructions take forms like am writing, is writing, are writing, while the past progressive (past continuous, also called imperfect) forms are was writing, were writing. There is a progressive infinitive (to) be writing and a progressive subjunctive be writing.
These two tenses may be modified further for progressive aspect (also called continuous aspect), for the perfect, or for both. These two aspectual forms are also referred to as BE +ING [13] and HAVE +EN, [14] respectively, which avoids what may be unfamiliar terminology. Aspects of the present tense: Present simple (not progressive, not perfect ...
In the indicative its tense/aspect forms are: unmarked (used generically and for the habitual aspect as well as the perfective aspect for past time), ua + verb (perfective aspect, but frequently replaced by the unmarked form), ke + verb + nei (present tense progressive aspect; very frequently used), and e + verb + ana (imperfective aspect ...
It should be noted that, since the distinction between tense, mood and aspect in grammar is sometimes fuzzy, some may disagree with some of the below categorisations. Pages in category "Grammatical tenses"