[is, am, are] + Past Participle

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Grammarian-bot  #352730  Thu, 19 Apr 07 04:20 AM
[is, am, are] + Present participle     (is going) is present continuous.
[was, were] + Past Participle          (was gone) is present perfect

[is, am, are] + Past Participle         (are engaged) ??????? (Which tense is this?)

As U.S. nuclear attack submarines prowl their familiar haunts deep within the oceans of the world these days, they increasingly are engaged in missions far different from the tasks for which they were built and for which their crews were trained over the last forty years.
  
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CalifJim  #352747  Thu, 19 Apr 07 05:18 AM
Simple present.  They all form a logical pattern.  You are wrong about present perfect, by the way.  Sad [:(]

am, is, are + -ing  Present continuous
was, were + -ing  Past continuous

am, is, are + anything else  Simple present
was, were + anything else  Simple past

has, have + been + -ing  Present perfect continuous
had + been + -ing           Past perfect continuous

has, have + -en  Present perfect
had + -en           Past perfect

-ing is a symbolic way of indicating "present participle" (or "gerund" if you like that term better)
-en indicates "past participle"  (even if the ending is something else like -ed)

CJ

  
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Grammarian-bot  #353202  Fri, 20 Apr 07 03:58 AM
 CalifJim wrote:
Simple present.  They all form a logical pattern.  You are wrong about present perfect, by the way.  Sad [:(]
am, is, are + anything else  Simple present
was, were + anything else  Simple past

CJ thanks a zillion. Trust me I didn't know that anything (except present participle) that follows is, am are or was, were is simple present and simple past respectively.

 CalifJim wrote:

You are wrong about present perfect, by the way.  Sad <img src=">


That was my mistake. Sorry about that.

And thanks for the logical form. I am going to paste it on my desktop (as I previously did your other post about does-show, does-go rather than goes and shows - a typical mistake that I always make).

GB

  
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