Business English for Success

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You should use the past progressive tense to describe a continuous action in the past, to
describe a past activity in progress while another activity occurred, or to describe two
past activities in progress at the same time:

• Ella and I were planning a vacation.

This sentence describes a continuous action in the past.

• I was helping a customer when I smelled delicious fried chicken.

This sentence describes a past activity in progress while another activity

occurred.

• While I was finishing my homework, my wife was talking on the phone.

This sentence describes two past activities in progress at the same time.

The future progressive tense describes an action or state of being that will take place in
the future and that will continue to take place. The action will have started at that future
moment, but it will not have finished at that moment.

To make verbs in the future progressive tense, combine these parts:

Future tense form of to be + - ing (present participle)

will be helping

Use the future progressive tense to describe an activity that will be in progress in the
future:

• Samantha and I will be dancing in the school play next week.


• Tomorrow Agnes will be reading two of her poems.

Exercise 5

On a separate sheet of paper, revise the following sentences, written in simple tenses,
using the progressive tenses indicated in parentheses.

1. He prepared the food while I watched. (past progressive tense)


2. Jonathan will speak at the conference. (future progressive)


3. Josie traveled to Egypt last July. (past progressive tense)


4. My foot aches, so I know it will rain. (present progressive tense)


5. Micah will talk a lot when I see him. (future progressive)


6. I yawn a lot because I feel tired. (present progressive tense)