No, "progressive" doesn't mean that these tenses are pushing for social change. Nor are they our favorite red-lipstick-and-black-eyeliner-wearing insurance pusher, Flo.
There are six progressive tenses, and they're used for ongoing actions or actions still in progress. They're formed in two ways:
- By adding the present, past, or future forms of the verb be to the present participle
- By adding the present perfect, past perfect, or future perfect forms of the verb be to the present participle
That's a lot of terminology to digest. Let's check things out in chart form and see how all of these progressive forms stack up against one another, shall we?
| Tense | Example |
|---|---|
| present progressive | I am sneezing |
| past progressive | I was sneezing |
| future progressive | I will be sneezing |
| present perfect progressive | I have been sneezing |
| past perfect progressive | I had been sneezing |
| future perfect progressive | I will have been sneezing |
Looks like somebody's allergic to her pet cat, Kingsly McRoarmuffin. How can we tell?
All of these progressive tenses of the verb sneeze indicate that the sneezing is ongoing or currently in progress.