[Grammar] should be + verb-ing

[shibli.aftab]

"We should be engaging women, giving them honest and realistic information to make decisions about how they want to give birth.

1. Please comment on the tense of the senetence.Is it present continuous tense?

2. What would be the difference in the meaning in the original sentence and below sentence?
""We should be engaging women by giving them honest and realistic information to make decisions about how they want to give birth."

3. Whats' the meaning of the original sentence?

Thanks

 

[5jj]

1. Please comment on the tense of the sentence.Is it present continuous tense?

We engage - present simple
We are engaging - present progressive/continuous.
We should engage - modal + bare infinitive (simple)
We should be engaging - modal + bare infinitive (progressive/continuous)

 

[sh3000]

**NOTE:I am not a teacher yet, but I am a language enthusiasr, and an experienced translator.

"We should be engaging women, giving them honest and realistic information to make decisions about how they want to give birth.

1. Please comment on the tense of the senetence.Is it present continuous tense?

ofcourse.becaus of 'be+V~ing' pattern.'Should' is a mere modal.

2. What would be the difference in the meaning in the original sentence and below sentence?
"

"We should be engaging women by giving them honest and realistic information to make decisions about how they want to give birth."

none in concept.but the clause starting 'giving them' is like a 'reduced relative clause'.I have read that if a relative word like 'which' is followed by a verb in active voiice, they can be replaced by a V~ing.

3. Whats' the meaning of the original sentence?

Thanks

it recommends that we engage women and ... .It makes an advice. and uses present continuous tense

 

[5jj]

**NOTE:spaceI am not a teacher yet, but I am a language enthusias[STRIKE]r[/STRIKE]t, and an experienced translator.

[STRIKE]o[/STRIKE]Ofspacecourse.because of 'be+V~ing' pattern.space'Should' is a mere modal.

'should be engaging' is not an example of a present continuous tense.

but the clause starting 'giving them' is like a 'reduced relative clause'

It is not.

[STRIKE]i[/STRIKE] It recommends that we engage [STRIKE]wemon[/STRIKE] women and ... .spaceIt [STRIKE]makes an[/STRIKE] gives advice.

It is not necessarily giving advice. It is probably suggesting that we have a duty/obligation to do this

 

[Rover_KE]

Note: 3. What's — not Whats'.

 

[sh3000]

'should be engaging' is not an example of a present continuous tense.It is not. It is not necessarily giving advice. It is probably suggesting that we have a duty/obligation to do this

It says that 'enegaging women, etc, is right and desirable.It says nothing about mandatoriness.'must' or 'have to' emphasizes that aspect

I think the verb tensde is present continuous.Why do you think it is not?

 

[emsr2d2]

It says that '[STRIKE]enegaging[/STRIKE] engaging women, etc, is right and desirable. It says nothing about mandatoriness. 'Must' or 'have to' emphasizes that aspect.

I think the verb [STRIKE]tensde[/STRIKE] tense is present continuous. Why do you think it is not?

The present continuous would read "We are engaging women ..." That's not what it says. It says "We should be engaging women ..." which, as 5jj already said, is the modal "should" followed by the bare infinitive progressive "be engaging".

For me, "We should be engaging women ..." means "It would be a good idea if we ..." or it is a statement of the writer's belief that it would be a good idea.

Please note my amendments to your post above. Remember that we put a space directly after a full stop before starting the next word.