Question

What's the difference between Progressive tenses and Perfect tenses?

Answer 1

See below:

Explanation:

Let's start with a sample sentence and then work through tenses:

Simple tenses:

Present tense - I study math as part of my home school curriculum.
Past tense - I studied math in the past.
Future tense - I will study math at some point in the future.

Progressive/Continuous tenses - these tenses tell us something about time and timing:

Present tense - I am studying math right now.
Past tense - I was studying math an hour ago.
Future tense - I will be studying math after dinner.

Perfect tenses - these do much the same as Progressive tenses, but the actions completed in the past or are completed by the present:

Present tense - I have studied math for 3 years.
Past tense - I had studied math when I was 5 years old.
Future tense - I will have studied math for 3 years when I finish this unit.

Prefect Progressive/Continuous tenses - these combine the two:

Present tense - I have been studying math for an hour.
Past tense - I had been studying math when I was called for dinner.
Future tense - I will have been studying math for 3 years when I complete this year.

Note that some of these tenses are very similar to others and so it's not always the case that just one tense can be used correctly in a given situation.

Ok - let's see if we can use these to make some sentences that show the difference:

I had been studying math (Past Perfect Progressive) when the phone rang (Simple Past)

I will be studying (Future Progressive) for my test tomorrow but first I will feed the cat (Future Simple)

I had studied (Past Perfect) African cultures and had thought I was done (Past Perfect), but then I realized (Past Simple) I had forgotten (Past Perfect) to include Ancient Egyptian culture and so I am studying it now (Present Progressive) and by 10pm tonight when I plan (Present Simple) to finish I will have been studying ( Future Perfect Progressive) for three hours.

Here are a couple of links to websites that will have a lot more tense help (the grammerly one has a chart of tenses):

https://www.grammarly.com/blog/verb-tenses/

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/grammar/verb-tenses

Hope this helps!

Answer 2

See explanation.

Explanation:

Perfect verbs describe a completed action, while progressive verbs indicate an incomplete action.

Examples:

• I was reading a book.

A progressive form tells that the action is not completed. The reason can be given in the second part of the sentence: "I was reading a book, but suddenly the phone rang."

• I have eaten breakfast.

It is a perfect form, which informs that the action is complete.

Most verbs can be used in both perfect and progressive sentences, but there are some like: must, hear, love, mean, etc. which cannot be used in progressive tenses. (i.e. you cannot say "I am hearing loud noise", but you must use Present Simpple tense 'I hear')