Is this present continuous or present simple? “There are children playing on the street.”

Question

“There are children playing on the street.”

Tense-wise, how would you categorize this?

Should this be accepted as an example for the present continuous tense? My first instinct was no, but the omitted “who are” is throwing me off.

Answer 1

"There are children" - present simple, if "there" is the subject, and then "children playing on the street" is a participle construction.

Whereas, "Childrean are playing there, on the street" would be present progressive. That usually requires a tense marker like "currently". The "there" might fill that role. At least it is certainly not the subject of a SVO; so, "are children ..." is a V2-Inversion and it uses present progressive (or continuous).