The document discusses the continuous tenses in English grammar, which are used to indicate an action that continues before and after a particular time without stopping. It provides examples of how the present continuous, past continuous, and future continuous tenses are used to describe ongoing or interrupted actions. The document also notes some exceptions and guidelines for using verbs in continuous tenses based on whether an action requires deliberate effort.

1. The Continuous
Tenses

2. The Continuous Tenses
• You use a continuous tense to indicate that
an action continues to happen before and
after a particular time, without stopping.
• You use the present continuous for actions
which continue to happen before and after
the moment of speaking.
I’m looking at the photographs.
They’re having a meeting.

3. The Continuous Tenses
• When you are talking about two actions in
the present tense, you use the present
continuous for an action that continues to
happen before and after another action that
interrupts it. You use the present simple for
the other action.
The phone always rings when I’m having a
bath.

4. The Continuous Tenses
• When you are talking about the past, you
use the past continuous for actions that
continued to happen before and after
another action, and before and after a
particular time. This is often called the
‘interrupted past’. You use the past simple
for the other action.
He was watching television when the
doorbell rang.

5. The Continuous Tenses
It was six o’clock. The train was nearing
London.

6. The Continuous Tenses
• Warning: If two things happened one after
another, you use two verbs in the past
simple tense.
As soon as he saw me, he waved.

7. The Continuous Tenses
• You can use continuous forms with modals
in al their usual meanings.
What could he be thinking of?
They might be telling lies.

8. The Continuous Tenses
• You use continuous tenses to express
duration, when you want to emphasize how
long something has been happening or will
happen for.
We had been living in Athens for five years.
They’ll be staying with us for a couple of
weeks.
By 2013, he will have been working for ten
years.

9. The Continuous Tenses
• Note: You do not have to use continuous
tenses for duration.
He had lived in Africa for five years.
He worked for us for ten years.

10. The Continuous Tenses
• You use continuous tenses to describe a
state or situation that is temporary.
I’m living in London at the moment.
He’ll be working nights next week.
She’s spending the summer in Europe.

11. The Continuous Tenses
• You use continuous tenses to show that
something is changing, developing, or
progressing.
Her English was improving.
The children are growing up quickly.
The video industry has been developing
rapidly.

12. The Continuous Tenses
• As a general rule, verbs which refer to
actions that require a deliberate effort can
be used in continuous tenses.
• Verbs that refer to actions that do not
require a deliberate effort are not used in
continuous tenses.

13. The Continuous Tenses
I think it is going to rain. (‘think’ = ‘believe’.
Believing does not require a deliberate
effort)
Please be quiet, I’m thinking. (‘think’ =
‘trying to solve a problem’. Trying to solve a
problem does require deliberate effort)

14. The Continuous Tenses
Note: Many verbs are not normally used in
the continuous tenses. These include verbs
that refer to thinking, liking and disliking,
appearance, possession, and perception.