The Continuous tense

Question

Hi there,Would "What are you doing?" be classed as the continuous tense?Thakns in advance,

Tanit · Accepted Answer

Hi,

It's present continuous (or present progressive).

Q: What are you doing?
A: I am doing my homework.

The tense is present; continuous (or progressive) is the aspect.

Anonymous · Answer

I was taught that the continuous tense rule is:

past or present tense of 'be' + '-ing' of main verb

Does that rule not fit in with "What are you doing?"?

Tanit · Answer

Hi,

AnonymousDoes that rule not fit in with "What are you doing?"?

Sure it fits, why not?

"What are you doing?"

are is the present tense of the verb "to be" (second person)
doing is the -ing form of "to do" (which here acts as the main verb)

When you have a verb in its continuous form, the tense is given by the verb "to be":

I am studying ... > present continuous
I have been studying ... > present perfect continuous
I was studying ... > past continuous
I had been studying ... > past perfect continuous

Anonymous · Answer

Thank you for the responses. Tanit, that explanation has really really helped me understand how it works! Muchas gracias!

Tanit · Answer

De nada.

You're very welcome.

Anonymous · Answer

Is it a rule that the auxiliary, the past participle and the main verb are immediately after one another with no other words inbetween?

For example:

"Have you ever had the feeling that you're being followed?"

This sentence has both "have" and "had" and two continuous verbs in it ("feeling" and "being"), but is it neither Present Perfect Continuous nor Past Perfect Continuous?

Tanit · Answer

Hi

AnonymousIs it a rule that the auxiliary, the past participle and the main verb are immediately after one another with no other words inbetween?

No, such a rule does not exist.

AnonymousFor example: "Have you ever had the feeling that you're being followed?"
This sentence has both "have" and "had" and two continuous verbs in it ("feeling" and "being"), but is it neither Present Perfect Continuous nor Past Perfect Continuous?

Your sentence is in the present perfect. "Have you ever had ..."
"the feeling" is a gerund, and acts as if it were a noun (it's the direct complement of "have had"). Try and replace it with "idea", "impression" etc (I'm not saying they are perfect synonym for "feeling" -- it's just to demonstrate that you can have a noun there, and to show you that "feeling" is not acting as a verb in your sentence). Another clue to understand its function is that it's preceded by the article "the".
"that you're being followed" this is a "that-clause" which describes what sort of "feeling" we are talking about. "being" here has to be seen together with "are" and "followed": "are being followed" is present continuous, passive.

Anonymous · Answer

Ah ok, so is that entire sentence classed as Present Perfect Continuous, or are the clauses treated separately? I.e.If I understand you correctly, "Have you ever had" is present perfect, and "are being followed" is present continuous. I don't understand the 'passive' thing so I suppose I'm a bit unclear still. My understanding is that for it to be 'perfect' the word 'have' (or a form of have) needs to be in there, wihch it is, but at the other end of the sentence to "are being followed".

Does my jibber jabber make any sense at all? [:^)]

Tanit · Answer

"Have you ever had the feeling that you're being followed?"

Hi again

AnonymousAh ok, so is that entire sentence classed as Present Perfect Continuous, or are the clauses treated separately?

Look at the main clause only: "Have you ever had (+ direct object)" is present perfect, and so the whole sentence is in the present perfect, too.
It could have been one of the following:
Have you ever had a dog?
Have you ever had a dog that barks all day?
Have you ever had a dog that is always barking?
Have you ever had a dog that has had puppies?
Have you ever had a dog that used to follow you everywhere when he was a puppy?
and it would always be in the present perfect, irrespective of what follows "have ...had" (I've tried to put various verb tenses after "that" ... I hope my examples are correct, but I cannot guarantee it!)

AnonymousMy understanding is that for it to be 'perfect' the word 'have' (or a form of have) needs to be in there

Yes, it's present perfect if you have
have or has + past participle if it's active (have/has gone, have/has told, have/has written etc)
have or has + been + past participle if it's passive (have/has been told, have/has been written etc)

Anonymous don't understand the 'passive' thing so I suppose I'm a bit unclear still

my comment about the passive referred to "are being followed":
you are following> present continuous, active
you are being followed > present continuous, passive

Does this help?

Anonymous · Answer

Yep that's perfect, thank you! Sorry that you had to write all that in order to make me understand it. Really appreciate it!

The Continuous tense

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