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(^) • The employees had been talking until their boss arrived.
This sentence indicates that the employees were talking in the past and they
stopped talking when their boss arrived, which also happened in the past.
- I had been working all day.
This sentence implies that I was working in the past. The action does not
continue into the future, and the sentence implies that the subject stopped
working for unstated reasons.The future perfect progressive tense is rarely used. It is used to indicate an action that
will begin in the future and will continue until another time in the future.
To make verbs in the future perfect progressive tense, combine the following parts:
Future tense
form of to have +^ been^ +^- ing (present
participle)
will have Been helping - By the end of the meeting, I will have been hearing about mortgages and
taxes for eight hours.
This sentence indicates that in the future I will hear about mortgages and taxes
for eight hours, but it has not happened yet. It also indicates the action of hearing
will continue until the end of the meeting, s omething that is also in the future.Gerunds
A gerund is a form of a verb that is used as a noun. All gerunds end in -ing. Since
gerunds function as nouns, they occupy places in a sentence that a noun would, such as
the subject, direct object, and object of a preposition.
You can use a gerund in the following ways:
- As a subject
Traveling is Cynthia’s favorite pastime.- As a direct object
I enjoy jogging.