Progressive tense (Korean)

The progressive tense is used to describe an ongoing action. In Korean, the progressive tense is formed with -고 있다.

일하고 있다

to be working

The past progressive tense, present progressive tense, and future progressive tense are all formed by conjugation of 있다:

청소하다

to clean

청소하고 있다

to be cleaning

청소하고 있어요

[I'm] cleaning

청소하고 있었어요

[I] was cleaning

청소하고 있을 거예요

[I] will be cleaning

Note that the progessive tense is not used in Korean nearly as often as it is in English. The non-progressive past, present, and future tenses will usually suffice.

공부해요.

I'm studying.

• Just the present tense of "to study," so the literal translation is more like "I study."

References

• [cite:@talktomeinkoreanTalkMeKorean2015]