Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word
continuous tense. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
continuous tense, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
continuous tense in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
continuous tense you have here. The definition of the word
continuous tense will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of
continuous tense, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
English
Noun
continuous tense (plural continuous tenses)
- (grammar) 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").
1985, Robert Burchfield, The English Language, Oxford: Oxford University Press, page 152: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)[.]
Synonyms