Berbeda dengan Simple Tense yang kata bantunya sering “sembunyi”, di Continuous Tense kata bantunya (Auxiliary) selalu eksplisit (kelihatan jelas). Aturannya: Ambil To Be-nya, buang Verb-ing nya.

A. Present Continuous Tense (am/is/are + V-

Karena di kalimat sudah ada is/am/are, kita tinggal memindahkannya ke ekor.

Subjek Tunggal (He, She, It, Nama Orang):
- Budi is playing football, isn’t he?
- The machine is working, isn’t it?
Subjek Jamak (You, We, They, Benda Banyak):
- They are watching a movie, aren’t they?
- You are joking, aren’t you?
Subjek I:
- I am not disturbing you, am I? (Negatif ke Positif aman).
- I am talking to myself, aren’t I? (Positif ke Negatif pakai pengecualian aren’t, detailnya di 8.4 nanti).

B. Past Continuous Tense (was/were + V-

Sama persis dengan Present, kita hanya perlu mencopot was atau were untuk dijadikan tag.

Was (I, He, She, It):
- She was crying when you left, wasn’t she?
- It was raining all night, wasn’t it?
Were (You, We, They):
- We were dreaming, weren’t we?
- The students were not listening, were they?

C. Future Continuous Tense (will + be + V-

Nah, ini detail yang sering bikin orang bingung. Karena ada dua kata bantu (will dan be), mana yang diambil?

Aturan: Selalu ambil kata bantu pertama saja. Dalam hal ini adalah Will.

Kalimat (+): You will be sleeping at 10 PM, won’t you? (Gunakan won’t, bukan won’t be).
Kalimat (-): They won’t be coming to the party, will they? (Gunakan will, bukan will be).

“The Verb-ing Trap”

Seringkali dalam ujian, siswa refleks membawa Verb-ing ke belakang.

Salah: He is eating, isn’t eating he?
Benar: He is eating, isn’t he?

Ingat: Tag itu minimalis. Isinya cuma Auxiliary + Pronoun. Semua embel-embel seperti Verb-ing atau kata be (pada future) harus ditinggalkan di kalimat utama.

Analisis Kasus Spesial di Continuous:

Bagaimana kalau subjeknya panjang?

The man who is wearing a red hat is standing there, isn’t he?
Detail: Meskipun ada dua “is”, tag selalu merujuk pada is utama yang menjelaskan aktivitas subjek (di akhir kalimat sebelum koma).