continuous tense
English · Thesaurus
AI In plain words
Writing a short explanation…
Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.
continuous tense
noun continuous tenses
-
A verb tense expressing ongoing action; in English, any of the tenses formed with the present participle, namely present continuous ("I am dreaming"), past continuous ("I was dreaming"), present perfect continuous ("I have been dreaming"), past perfect continuous ("I had been dreaming"), future continuous ("I will be dreaming") or future perfect continuous ("I will have been dreaming").
Traditional grammar places great stress on [...] tenses of verbs and tense-equivalents, including the complications of the continuous tenses (he is writing the book all over again)[.]
Similar: progressive tense
Talk about this word "continuous tense." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/continuous%20tense. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. continuous tense. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/continuous%20tense "continuous tense." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/continuous%20tense.Cite this
@misc{continuous_tense_2026,
title = {continuous tense},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/continuous%20tense},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}