Hi, A minor point came up that I couldn't answer in my English class, so I told the kids I'd go right to the experts. We've been studying verb tenses in my sixth grade class with an eye to their effect on writing. I asked them to write a half-page narrative using as much progressive tense as they could (I wanted them to notice what it did to "voice"). We were looking at the sentences today, and I didn't know what to call the verb phrase in the following: The children should have been eating. It's present perfect progressive, but does adding the modal change it to something else? For that matter, does adding a modal change the name of any tense? Thanks, Gretchen in San Jose [log in to unmask] To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/