Like other tenses, it is required to have general consideration for using present progressive tense. Martin Parrot pronounces its usage that
“… to refer to something temporary which has begun and has not finished, something which is completable and is in the process of being
completed”.
20
Furthermore, here are some functions of employing present progressive tense declared by Michael Swan:
a. The present progressive tense is made with amareis + -ing. The
commonest use of the present progressive tense is to talk about actions and situations that are already going on at the moment of speaking.
Why are you crying? Is something wrong?
b. The present progressive is also used to talk about future happenings.
My sister is living at home for the moment. c.
We sometimes use the present progressive in a more general way, to talk about something that may be going on at any time.
You look lovely when you are smiling.
21
In addition, other perceptions of the usage of present progressive tense stated by Rosamund Moon, they are “… to indicate that an action
continues to happen before and after a particular time ex: I’m looking at the photographs my brother sent me., and … for an action that continues
to happen before and after another action that interrupts it ex: The phone always rings when I’m having a bath.”.
22
3. The Passive Voice of Present Progressive Tense
As they have already been explained, passive voice is a sentence pattern formed by to be and followed by a past participle and composed by
transitive verbs, while present progressive tense is a tense functions to express actions or events in progress. If both are fused, there will be a new
20
Parrot, Grammar for …, p. 157.
21
Swan, Practical English …, p. 496-497.
22
Rosamund Moon, et al., Cobuild Student’s Dictionary and Grammar, London: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd., 1994, p. 43.
definition that passive voice of present progressive tense is an expression of present progressive tense in form of passive.
To form the passive voice of the present continuous tense, use am, is, or are + being + past participle. The passive voice subject determines
whether the verb be is singular or plural.
23
In another, a same thought has been found in Cobuild Student’s Dictionary and Grammar drawn that
“Continuous passive tenses are formed with a form of the auxiliary ‘be’ followed by being and the past participle of a main verb”.
24
Active Passive The Soviet Union is sending
ships into outer space. Ships are being sent into outer
space. Present
Continuous Tense
Researchers are launching a new rocket today.
A new rocket is being launched
today. Here, there will be a classification of sentence as an example
according to its words composition.
The sentence : The Soviet Union is sending ships into outer space.
Subject to be V
-ing
Object Analysis
: The sentence has Subject the Soviet Nation, to be + V
-ing
is sending, and Object ships. Its verb belongs to present progressive tense and transitive verb because
there is an Object follows. Thus, it may become passive and it is shown as follows:
The Sentence : Ships are being sent into outer space.
Subject to be+V
-ing
past participle Analysis
: Subject in passive sentence ships is derived from Object of active sentence as shown above. And, Object in
passive is taken from Subject of active sentence. Object may be involved or not. It is based on the purpose
whether the original doer is important or not to be known.
23
Werner, et al., Interactions 2 …, p. 280-281.
24
Moon, et al., Cobuild Student’s …, p. 85.
Furthermore, as it has been demonstrated, the transformation of Verb belongs to passive present
progressive tense. It is recognized that the formula is to be + V
-ing
+ past participle V
3
. To be is decided by Subject whether it is singular first person I, plural first
person we, singular second person you, singular third person she, he, it, or plural second person they.
Subject ships is plural third person, therefore it applies to be as illustrated below:
Singular first person I
am Plural first person
we are
Singular second person you
are Singular third person
she, he, it is
Plural third person they
are Therefore, Subject ships uses to be “are”.
According to the purposes, sentences can be divided into four sub- types; declarative, imperative, interrogative, and exclamatory sentence.
25
In this occasion, there will be only explained declarative, contains of affirmative and negative sentence, and interrogative sentence.
a. Affirmative sentence
Subject To
be V
-ing
Past Participle
Object Complement
They lectured by their
teacher -
The apple pies which I like very much
are eaten
by my young brother
- My brother’s black
motorcycle repaired a
mechanic -
MaryAntonSheHe is
being
asked by hisher
mother to buy some
meals
25
Muhammad Farkhan, an Introduction to Linguistic, Jakarta: UIN Jakarta Press, 2006, p. 89-90.
b. Negative sentence
Subject To
be Negative
Sign V
-ing
Past Participle
Object Complement
They lectured by their
teacher -
The apple pies which I like
very much are
eaten by my
young brother
-
My brother’s black
motorcycle repaired
by a mechanic
-
MaryAnton SheHe
is not being
asked by
hisher mother
to buy some meals
c. Interrogative sentence
To be
Subject V
-ing
Past Participle
Object Complement
they lectured by their
teacher? -
Are the apple pies which
i like very much asked
by my young brother?
- my brother’s black
motorcycle repaired
by a mechanic?
- Is
MaryAntonshehe being
eaten by hisher
mother to buy some
meals?
H. Communicative Approach
