One of the most commonly use tenses in English is the progressive tense. Fortunately the English rules for progressive tense are not very difficult to learn. The progressive conjugation is composed of a English present tense conjugation of the verb “to be” and an verb form with the ending of “ing” added (learning, making, studying, and so on). “To be” is only the English verb to be that requires any conjugational changes in the present tense.

The English present participle is static:

TO LEARN
I am learning English with Skype English lessons.
You are learning English with Skype English lessons.
He/she/it is learning English with Skype English lessons.
We are learning English with Skype English lessons.
They are learning English with Skype English lessons.
The student is learning English with Skype English lessons.
The students are learning English with Skype English lessons.

This tense shows an action that is in progress and not yet complete. It is often incomplete because of an interruption:

I am teaching Bob English. (My teaching Bob English is an ongoing task.)
She is learning English. (At this moment, she is learning English but has not learned it yet.)
Bill is putting milk in the glass when he breaks the glass. (This action is interrupted by the glass’s being broken.)

These English verbs to be and to have can also be used in this tense form:

TO BE
I am being
you are being
he/she/it is being
we are being
they are being
the student is being
the students are being

TO HAVE
I am having
you are having
he/she/it is having
we are having
they are having
the student is being is having
the students are being are having

The usage of to be and to have in this tense form indicates an action in progress or interrupted:

You are being very lazy. (Your laziness is ongoing.)
They are having an English class when the lights go out. (The class is interrupted by the sudden darkness.)

When negating progressive verbs with not, the adverb is placed between the verb to be and the present participle:

I am not studying.
She is not studying.
We aren’t studying.
Bob isn’t studying us tonight.

The Emphatic Response

In English an emphatic response is used as a contradiction to what someone else has stated whether it is positive or negative. If the statement is positive, the emphatic response is negative. If the statement is negative, the emphatic response is positive. The auxiliary verb to do is used together with another verb to form the emphatic response:

I do like learning English.
We don’t have a computer.

In response to a negative statement, use the positive form of to do:

They don’t help us. That’s not true. They do help us.
Mary doesn’t sing in our chorus. She does sing in our chorus.

In response to a positive statement, use the negative form of to do:

They live in Mexico. No. They don’t live in Mexico.
You need my English classes. I don’t need your English classes!
Bob does his English homework alone. Bob doesn’t do his English homework alone.

If an emphatic response to a sentence in which the verb is in the progressive form is needed, the auxiliary to do cannot be used. Instead, in speech the auxiliary to be or the negative adverb is intoned, and in writing, the response can end with an exclamation point:

She isn’t learning English. She is learning English!
We aren’t going along. You are going along!
You are being foolish. I am not being foolish!

Now that you have the rules of English Progressive verbs , you need to practice them in order to really learn them well. One of the best ways to learn English for people who do not have the time to go to a English language school or to fly to an English speaking country is for them to take English lessons online with a live teacher. These days there are multiple Skype English lessons services online so you can find one to suite your needs. One of the top services is http://www.online-english-lessons.net. They not only have professional English teachers, but have native English speaking teachers that speak Spanish, German, Turkish and Mandarin. Keep practicing and you can achieve your dream of learning English!

Author Bio: Blake Rayden works for the two largest Skype language lessons sites on the web, English Lessons Skype and Online Spanish Lessons .

Category: Education
Keywords: learn english, study english, english verbs, skype english