Mubarak Abdessalami

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 The Present Continuous Tense

Table of Contents

Introduction 03

I. Form 03

a. Affirmative 03

b. Negative 03

c. Interrogative 04

d. Negative Questions 04

e. Question Tag 04

f. Short answers 05

g. Sum up 05

II. Use & Usage 05

III. Spelling Rules 06

IV. Exceptions 06

V. Expressing Complaining 07

IV. Time expressions 07

VI. Simultaneity 08

VII. Writing 09

VIII. Cases of Ambiguity 10

Conclusion 11

Practice + Key 12

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 The Present Continuous Tense

Introduction

The present continuous tense is also called “The Present Progressive” and it is
used to talk about actions in progress. It describes actions happening now or in the
future as well as the actions starting in the past and ending sooner in the near future;
in addition to repeated actions, current changes and temporary situations.

I. Form

a. Affirmative

Full form Short form

I am verb+ing I’m verb+ing
You are verb+ing You’re verb+ing

He He
She is verb+ing She ‘s verb+ing
It It

We We
You are verb+ing You ‘re verb+ing
They They

Example
I am reading this now I’m using my computer
Ali is doing his homework He’s revising his lessons
Leila and Nadia are listening to music Your phone is ringing

b. Negative

Full form Short form

I am not verb+ing I’m not verb+ing
You are not verb+ing You aren’t verb+ing

He He
She is not verb+ing She isn’t verb+ing
It It

We We
You are not verb+ing You aren’t verb+ing
They They

Example
I am not playing foot ball now I’m not using my phone
He is not watching TV It isn’t moving
They are not eating anything We aren’t cooking dinner

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c. Interrogative

Yes/No questions With question words

Am I verb+ing? How am I verb+ing?
Are you verb+ing? Where are you verb+ing?

he he
Is she verb+ing? What’s she verb+ing?
it it

we we
Are you verb+ing? When are you verb+ing?
they they

Example
Am I doing this right? How am I doing it right?
Is he working on the project? What’s he doing?
Are they eating chips? When are you leaving?
Is she laughing or crying? Who are you talking to?

d. Negative Questions

Yes/No questions With the question word “why”

Am I not / Aren’t I verb+ing? Why aren’t you verb+ing?
Aren’t you verb+ing?

he
Isn’t she verb+ing?
it

we
Aren’t you verb+ing?
they

Example
Am I not doing this right? Why isn’t he doing his homework?
Isn’t he selling his old car? Why aren’t you talking to me?
Aren’t they helping you?

N. B. This form is better be avoided because it is almost always confusing. The answer
with “yes” or “no” might create misunderstanding. Therefore, it can easily be replaced
by a clear positive question like the following. Compare

Negative: Aren’t you coming to the meeting tomorrow?

Positive: Are you coming to the meeting tomorrow?

e. Question Tag

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 The Present Continuous Tense

• Linda is working at the bank, isn’t she?

• The kids are coming home, aren’t they?
• The cat is sitting under the table, isn’t it?

f. Short answers

• Is Leila coming to the party? Yes, she is.

• Are you leaving now? No, I’m not
• Is it raining? Yes, it is.
• Are they repairing the car? No they aren’t.

g. Sum up

A: What are you doing?

B: I’m reading this paper.

A: No, I mean what are you doing these days?

B: Oh, Nothing special. I am preparing for my exams like everybody else.

A: And what are you doing later today?

B: I’m watching a movie, or maybe chatting with friends on the net.

II. Use & Usage

The present continuous/progressive describes actions in progress. The tense

uses the form “verb+ing” to stress and maintain this continuity. The actions must always
be long, they happen within a relatively large lapse of time.

In other words, the present continuous/progressive tense is generally used to

describe an action that is happening now, around now or in the near future:
- Now: I am reading this paper now
Leila isn’t doing anything at the moment

- Around now: I am reading Shakespeare these days

Tom isn’t participating in any competition this year

- The near future: Sue is travelling to London tomorrow morning

The kids are going to the zoo this weekend

We can also use the present progressive to talk about

1. Repeated actions like

- Someone is stealing from my safe.
- The neighbor’s dog is barking all the time.

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2. Current changes like

- The kids are becoming more serious about their studies.
- My mother is getting older and older.

3. Temporary situations
- I am using my father’s car. (It is only momentary)
- Leila is staying with her grandparents. (Only for a short period of time)

III. Spelling Rules

1. Some verbs when in the present continuous they need to have their last letter
doubled, but this is more an exception than a general rule.

- get => getting  She is getting nervous

- sit => sitting  They are sitting on the floor
- run => running  The dog is running after the cat
- swim => swimming  They are swimming in the pool
- win => winning  They are winning the game
- begin => beginning  It is beginning to rain
- shop => shopping  She is shopping alone
- travel => travelling  He is travelling to Paris very soon

2. In verbs ending with the silent “e”, we always drop the « e » and replace it by the
suffix “-ing” like in

- take => taking => My parents are taking a nap now.

- have => having => I am not having a shower today
- come => coming => Nobody is coming to the party
- write => writing => She is writing her third book
- revise => revising => Are you revising your lessons?

3. There is a particular exception and it is this

- lie => lying
The kids are lying to us; their father is lying on the sofa watching TV calmly.

Apart from these exceptions, the other verbs take the “-ing” suffix normally without
omitting, adding or doubling any letters; no modifications are needed, and this is the
general rule.

IV. Exceptions

There are lots of verbs which are never put in the continuous form (verb+ing) in
the sense that they describe a state which normally doesn’t tend to change. We call

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them the “non-continuous” or the “stative” verbs. This is a list of the most common
ones,
 know
 want
 need
 love
 hate
 like
 dislike
 prefer
 hear
 understand
 remember
 etc

It is not correct to say, “Are you knowing me?”*; you should rather say, “Do you
know me?” And this is also applicable for the other verbs. We cannot say for instance,
“I am preferring tea to coffee”. The right is to say, “I prefer tea to coffee” and so on.

V. Expressing Complaining

It is noteworthy that some adverbs like “constantly” and “always”, but

particularly “always” are used with the present progressive to show annoyance or
dissatisfaction or to express complaint, like

- You are always telephoning me at the wrong time

- They are constantly trying to find fault with her
- She is always driving on the wrong side of the road.
- They are always moving furniture in the middle of the night.
- He is constantly asking someone to wash his car.

IV. Time expressions

Like all the other tenses, the present continuous also requires time expressions.
They are roughly referred to as “adverbs of time”. They are often necessary tools used
specifically with the present continuous to tell us when exactly the action is taking
place.

Some of the time adverbs used with the present progressive are

~ now / right now

- He is signing the contract right now

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- My mother is sleeping now

~ today / tonight
- My father is travelling to London today
- We are eating out tonight

~ at the moment
- My sister is working on her computer at the moment

~ at present
- I am not doing anything at present

~ still
- They are still waiting for the results

~ this morning/afternoon/evening
- I am meeting some important guests this morning
- My grandma is staying at home this afternoon
- They are not working this evening

~ tomorrow
- The kids aren’t going to school tomorrow
- Tomorrow, The kids are going to the beach

~ these days
- They are decorating their new office these days

~ this week/month/semester/season/year
- We are organizing a party this week
- I am buying a new car this month
- John is working on an interesting project this semester
- They are not growing any crops this season
- Nobody is travelling this year.

~ nowadays
- Nobody is caring about quality nowadays.

VI. Simultaneity

The present progressive can make it possible describing two actions happening at
the same time, and they can have the same duration. To show this simultaneity, we
normally use the linking word “while”

Suppose these two actions happen simultaneously

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 The Present Continuous Tense

1. Ali is doing his homework

2. Ahmed is playing video games

The present progressive can use constructions capable of explaining that the two
actions are happening at the same time in various ways
- While Ali is doing his homework, Ahmed is playing video games
- While Ahmed is playing video games, Ali is doing his homework
- Ahmed is playing video games while Ahmed is playing video games
- Ahmed is playing video games while Ali is doing his homework

Additionally, there are sentences where the subject is the same like in
- Ahmed is eating chips while he is playing video games
- While Ali is doing his homework, he is listening to some music.

VII. Writing

The present progressive is useful in some types of writing particularly in…

A. Describing or reporting events happening right away

You must be an eye-witness to describe an action in progress like,

The kids are playing in the garden now. Look at them; Ralph and Reda are chasing
each other. Ted is hiding behind the tree while Marry is looking for him. Bob and Linda
are spinning happily around the fountain. Look over there, George is running after the
dog trying to catch it, and Sandy is laughing at him. Behind the fence, Tom is riding a
unicycle. As you can see, the kids are really enjoying themselves.

B. Talking about what you and other people are doing now. This allows you to use all
forms with different structures and to choose the most convenient word-order for
your sentences. The speaker looks like someone reporting some events which are
happening in front of us live. Here is an example,

Hello Peter,
For the time being I am in the park where my siblings and I are spending some
good time together. I am sitting in the shade with my sister. She is combing her hair
while I am writing this e-mail to you. My little brother Adam is climbing up a tree and
making noises like a monkey. My elder brothers are playing chess calmly while John is
not paying attention to them because he is concentrating reading a book. As for my
sister Sue, she is knitting a pair of socks for the winter. My siblings are all busy doing
something, but none of them is using a mobile phone … except for me of course. What
about you? What are you doing right now?
Take care ~ Rod

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C. To talk about future plans

Tomorrow is my day off so I am planning to stay at home and do some housework.

First, I am sweeping the kitchen floor and feeding the cat before breakfast. Then, I am
doing the dishes and putting the washing machine on. After that I am replacing the
broken windowpane in my bedroom. Next, I am cleaning the bedroom and folding
clothes. Later, I am watering the plants and finally, I am taking out the rubbish before
going to bed.

VIII. Cases of Ambiguity

Case One

Some sentences need an elaborate context to be clear, but this isn’t the case
often, and we get situations like

- Leila is making cakes

As a discrete sentence, this can have various meanings depending on several elements
like the speaker, the pitch, the intonation, and so on

1. Leila’s profession or hobby is making cakes.

2. Leila is now in the kitchen making cakes.
3. Leila should be revising her lessons, but she is making cakes instead.
4. Leila is going to make cakes in a while.
5. It is Leila who is making cakes, not anybody else.
6. Leila is not doing anything else except for making cakes.

Case Two

In the following dialogue, can you tell if Ben’s answer is correct or not?

Sue: Ben, are you sleeping?

Ben: Yes, I am sleeping.

Grammatically and syntactically speaking, it is very correct, but what about the
meaning it bears. Can a sleeping person speak and utter this sentence; if he does he is
lying. When one is asleep, one is on “airplane mode” or on power off; he is unaware of
anything. So, normally if Ben is sleeping, he won’t be able to hear Sue asking him. How
can he then answer her unless he is awakened and he is kidding her … and us?

If we take it from another perspective, it must be meaningful. Sue wants to

know whether Ben is going to sleep or not, and Ben confirms. What we understand from
the exchange is that Ben is preparing to go to bed. It is as if he is saying, “Yes, I am

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going to bed”. However, there are better styles to say the same thing while avoiding
confusion.
Sue: Ben, are you going to sleep?
Ben: Yes, I am going to sleep right away.

Case Three

This kind of ambiguity is due to the resemblance of the deverbal adjectives in “–

ing” and the present participle. The following sentences fall in this category. They have
double meaning which creates confusion

A. They are boring kids (adjective / verb)

a- The kids are boring
b- Someone is making the kids bored

B. They are walking sticks

a- Those sticks are walking ones
b- They are walking sticks/canes

C. They are encouraging remarks

a- (those People) are encouraging remarks
b- The remarks are encouraging

D. They are frightening boys

a- They (Some people) are making the boys frightened
b- The boys are frightening (they make people frightened)

The vast zone of time which the present progressive covers makes such
confusing sentences happen more often.

Conclusion

For us, humans, time is two poles, a past that is tormenting and an insecure far
future that is worrying. We are in the middle torn apart between the sufferings and
regrets of the past and the terrifying threats and worries of the future. The present
continuous, thus, is the only real tense capable of describing what we are doing right
now and what we are planning to do in the near future. It is capable of sharing it
instantly. It is more true to life as it is lively and fresh.

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Practice

Put the verbs between brackets in the present continuous

1. Please be quiet. I (try) __________________________________ to concentrate.

2. Look! It (snow) ____________________________________________________

3. Why (you / look) ______________________________________ at me like that?

4. You (make) ________________________ a lot of noise. Can you be a bit quieter?

5. Excuse me; I (look) __________________ for a phone box. Is there one near here?

6. It’s a good film, isn't it? (you/enjoy) _________________________________ it?

7. Listen. Can you hear the kids? They (shout) ________________ at each other again.

8. Why (you/wear) __________________________ your coat today? It's very warm.

9. I (not/work) _________________________________ this week. I'm on holiday.

10. I (leave) ____________________________________________ now. Good bye.

______________________________________________________

Key

1. Please be quiet. I (try) _______am trying_______ to concentrate.

2. Look! It (snow) ____________is snowing________________________________

3. Why (you / look) _________are you looking______________ at me like that?

4. You (make) _____are making_______ a lot of noise. Can you be a bit quieter?

5. Excuse me; I (look) __am looking___ for a phone box. Is there one near here?

6. It’s a good film, isn't it? (you/enjoy) ___Are you enjoying______ it?

7. Listen. Can you hear the kids? They (shout) __are shouting__ at each other again.

8. Why (you/wear) ______are you wearing______ your coat today? It's very warm.

9. I (not/work) _______am not working_______ this week. I'm on holiday.

10. I (leave) _______am leaving_________ now. Good bye.

______________________________________________________

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