Universidade Aberta ISCED

Faculdade de Ciências de Educação

Curso de Licenciatura em Ensino de História

THE PRESENT PROGRESSIVE OR THE PAST PERFECT SIMPLE

Arnaldo Agostinho Salimo Canate: 81231085

Nampula
Maio de 2023

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 Universidade Aberta ISCED
Faculdade de Ciências de Educação
Curso de Licenciatura em Ensino de Historia

THE PRESENT PROGRESSIVE OR THE PAST PERFECT SIMPLE

Trabalho de Campo a ser submetido na Coordenação

do Curso de Licenciatura em Ensino de Historia da
UnISCED.

Tutor: dr. Celito Avelino Cussaia Escova Ribeiro

Arnaldo Agostinho Salimo Canate: 81231085

Nampula

Maio de 2023

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Conteúdo
Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 4
Objectives ....................................................................................................................................... 4
General objectives ........................................................................................................................... 4
Specific objectives .......................................................................................................................... 4
Methodology ................................................................................................................................... 4
DEVELOPMENT ........................................................................................................................... 5
Present Progressive ......................................................................................................................... 5
Indication of present progressive .................................................................................................... 5
Structure of present progressive...................................................................................................... 6
Past Perfect Simple ......................................................................................................................... 6
Past Perfect simple relating to past simple ..................................................................................... 7
FINAL CONSIDERATIONS ......................................................................................................... 7
Bibliography ................................................................................................................................... 8

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Introduction
This work entails to study “the present progressive or past perfect simple”. The present
progressive is one of the most complex aspects of the present tense of English since it is applied
in different contexts of use. Whereas Past perfect simple tense is used when you want to
emphasise that something happened before the events / situations you are focusing on. It may
help to think of the relationship between the Past Perfect tense and past time, as stated by Lynch
& Anderson (2013).

Objectives
General objectives
The general objective of this work is to discuss the use of the present progressive or past perfect
simple.

Specific objectives
a) Define the indication of the present progressive or past perfect simple;

b) Shed light their uses, and finally

c) Present examples and forms of conjugating them.

Methodology
The methodology used in this work is bibliographical research, in which the author of this paper
read books to find information. All the references are presented on the reference page of this
study.

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DEVELOPMENT
Present Progressive
Indication of present progressive
The present progressive tense indicates continuing action, something going on now. This tense is
formed with the helping "to be" verb, in the present tense, plus the present participle of the verb
(with an -ing ending): "I am buying all my family's Christmas gifts early this year. On the hand,
the present progressive is complex, because it is marked by the use of auxiliary be in the present
+ the /ing/ marker attached to the verb as in ‘he is reading, they are watching TV’.

Leech and Svartvik (2013) claim that “the verbs which most typically take the progressive aspect
are verbs denoting ACTIVITIES (walk, read, drink, write, work, etc) or PROCESSES (change,
grow, widen, improve, etc)” (p. 52). As an aspect of the present tense, it basically refers to a
temporary activity in progress. This activity must be incomplete in nature. The action, in this
respect, stretches into the past and into the future; in the sense that no information about the
beginning or the end is given (Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, & Svartvik, 1985, p. 209).

According to ZHIRI (2017), the present progressive is also perceived as describing actions or
events happening around the moment of speaking (occurring at the time of the utterance). The
action, in this sense, is seen as turning around the moment NOW. This latter can refer to the
actual now ‘means at the time being’ as in John is washing his car now. It can also refer to a
longer action happening around now. NOW in this context can mean this second, today, this
month, this year, or even this century as in She is studying to become an engineer.

The author aforementioned, states:

“Within durativity, the present progressive is also used to describe a changing,
growing, and developing situation. The action in this situation is on-going as in
Your English is improving. It is important to note that the present progressive
is also applied when the change or the growth of a situation happens in a slow
manner (slowly changing situations)” (ZHIRI, 2017, p.403).

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Structure of present progressive
This tense is formed with the helping "to be" verb, in the present tense, plus the present participle
of the verb (with an -ing ending):
Form: S + “to be” present tense + Present participle (Verb-ing) + Object.
Example: I am buying all my family's Christmas gifts early this year.

Past Perfect Simple

According to Richards (2005) admits that “we use the past perfect when we are already talking
about the past, and want to talk about an earlier past time”.

On the other hand, a National Geography Learning hand book says:

1. The past perfect is used to show that one action or event happened before another past
action, event, or time.
2. Use the past perfect for the action or event that happened first. Use the simple past for the
one that happened second.
3. The past perfect is not necessary when the context is clear. Words like before and after
make the order of events clear.
E.g. a) She had left home before he arrived. b) She left home before he arrived.
4. Already, always, ever, just, and never usually go before the past participle.
E.g. a) Had you ever noticed that sign before?
b) She had never eaten a kiwi until her trip.

5. By + a time or by the time + subject + simple past are often used with the past perfect. By
means before or not later than.(National Geography Learning, n.d. p.50)
E.g. a) By 5:00 p.m., it had rained two inches.
b) By the time we finished dinner, the rain had stopped.

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Past Perfect simple relating to past simple

The Past Perfect is mainly used in contrast to the ‘normal’ Past Tense when you want to
emphasise that something happened before the events / situations you are focusing on. It may
help to think of the relationship between the Past Perfect tense and past time. You use the Past
Perfect when you want to refer to an earlier event or situation that had some effect on the past
time. (Lynch & Anderson, 2013, p. 54).
The author says “It is often appropriate to use the Past Perfect to report statements or questions
which referred to a previous time. For example, if someone says to you” (p.56)

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS
Throughout the present paper, we see that the present progressive aspect of the present tense is
complex, but it is used to describe actions or events happening around the moment of speaking
(occurring at the time of the utterance), and it is formed with the helping "to be" verb, in the
present tense, plus the present participle of the verb (with an -ing ending). On the part of past
perfect simple it is used when we are already talking about the past, and want to talk about an
earlier past time. And it formed by the past tense of “have” plus past participle of e verb.

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Bibliography

_______ National Geography Learning (n.d). Present and Past: Perfect and Progressive.

Leech, G., & Svartvik, J. (2013). A Communicative Grammar of English (3rd ed). New York:
Routledge.

Lynch, Tony & Anderson, Kenneth (2013). Grammar for Academic Writing. Retrieved from
https://www.ed.ac.uk/files/atoms/files/grammar_for_academic_writing_ism.pdf

Quirck, R. Greenbaum, S., Leech, G. & Svartvik, J. (1985). A Comprehensive Grammar of the
English Language. London: Longman.

Richards J. C. ( 2005). Passages students’s book, New York, Cambridge University Press.

ZHIRI, Y. (2017). The Present Progressive: A Difficult Aspect to Learn, Evidence from the
Moroccan EFL Classroom Arab World English Journal, 8 (4). DOI:
https://dx.doi.org/10.24093/awej/vol8no4.27