The Present Continuous Tense

Every morning people take a shower, eat breakfast, and get dressed.
Every night people cook, do the dishes, and watch TV.
Every weekend people do the laundry, go shopping, and relax.
Routines are actions people do every day (or every week, every weekend,
every month, every year).

Add ing to the end of the present tense action verb to talk about now, this minute.
Example:

Routine (present tense): I eat breakfast every morning.

Routine happening this minute (present continuous tense): I am eating breakfast now*.

*Notes: Not all action verbs are routines.

When you use the action verb + ing, now is implied. It is not necessary to use
now in the sentence (ing = now). Now is used for emphasis (strong feeling).
Sometimes the spelling changes when ing is added. Example: drive driving (The e
is not used or “dropped”.) Or a letter is doubled. Example: shop shopping.
(See the spelling chart in the back of the book for more information.)

Exercise 1 Directions: Fill in the blanks with action verbs + (plus) ing.

1. What is he doing? 2. What is he doing?

He is waking up. He is ____________

_________________
wake up brush his teeth

3. What is he doing? 4. What is he doing?

He is ____________ He is ____________

_________________ _________________
exercise take a shower

5. What is he doing? 6. What is she doing?

He is ____________ She is ____________

_________________ _________________
shave get dressed

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 The Present Continuous Tense
7. What is she doing? 8. What is she doing?

She is ____________ She is ____________

_________________ _________________
brush her hair put on make-up

9. What is he doing? 10. What is she doing?

He is ____________ She is ____________

_________________ _________________
make (or cook) blow dry
breakfast her hair

11. What is she doing? 12. What is he doing?

She is ____________ He is ____________

_________________ _________________
make the bed drive

13. What are they 14. What are they

doing? doing?

They are _________ They are _________

_________________ _________________
take the bus study

15. What is she doing? 16. What is he doing?

She is ____________ He is ____________

_________________ _________________
work eat lunch

17. What is he doing? 18. What is she doing?

He is _____________ She is ____________

__________________ _________________
shop write a check

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 The Present Continuous Tense
19. What is he doing? 20. What is she doing?

He is ____________ She is ____________

_________________ _________________
pay with a
credit card go home

21. What is he doing? 22. What is she doing?

He is ____________ She is ____________

_________________ __________________
get the mail cook

23. What are you 24. What is she doing?

doing?
She is ____________
We are ___________
__________________
__________________
eat dinner clean

25. What is he doing? 26. What are they

doing?
He is _____________
They are __________
__________________
work on __________________
computer do the dishes

27. What are they 28. What are they

doing? doing?

They are __________ They are __________

__________________ talk on the __________________

do the laundry phone

29. What is he doing? 30. What are you

doing?
He is _____________
We are ___________
__________________
read the
__________________
newspaper watch TV

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 The Present Continuous Tense
31. What is she doing? 32. What are you
doing?
She is ____________
I am _____________
__________________
__________________
walk the dog buy groceries

33. What is he doing? 34. What is she doing?

He is _____________ She is ____________

__________________ __________________
water the
relax plants

35. What are you 36. What is she doing?

doing?
She is ____________
I am _____________
__________________
__________________
wash my hands feed the baby

37. What is he doing? 38. What are you

doing?
He is _____________
I am _____________
__________________
__________________
get undressed take a bath

39. What are you 40. What is she doing?

doing?
She is ____________
I am _____________
__________________
__________________
go to bed go to sleep

Speaking Activity

Directions: Use the present tense: Talk about the routines you do every
day. Example: I brush my teeth every day.

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 Have and Has and Kitchen Things

Have and has are action verbs Pronoun Action Verb Article Noun
that tell about possession.
I
Use have with the You
pronouns I, you, they, we. have
They
We
Use has with the pronouns he, she, it. a
He
She has
Exercise 1 Directions: Study the chart. It fork.
Fill in the blanks with have or has.

1. I have a salt 2. He has a pepper

shaker. shaker.

3. She ____________ 4. You _____________

a bowl.
k a basket of bread.

5. He _____________ 6. They ___________

a napkin. a kettle.

saucer
7. You ____________ 8. We ____________
vase
a cup and saucer. a vase of flowers.

9. I ______________ 10. She ___________

straw
a glass of water. a plate.

11. I _____________ 12. He ____________

a spoon. a knife.

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 Adjectives Chart
Adjectives describe (tell about) nouns (people, places, things, animals) and
pronouns (I, he, she, it, you, they, we). Examples:

1. Colors 7. Appearance

Examples: red, green, Examples: beautiful

blue, yellow, pink, (woman), cute (dog)
orange, white, brown, ugly (witch)
black, purple, gold

8. Shapes
2. Feelings (Emotions)

Examples: happy, sad, Examples: long (tail),

angry, hungry, scared, oval (egg), round
nervous, sick, tired (ball), square (box)
I feel...

3. Size 9. Numbers

Examples: extra large, Examples: one, two,

large, medium, small three, four, five, six,
seven, eight, nine, ten
XL L M S ...zero is, too!

4. Weather 10. Texture

Examples: sunny, hot, Examples: soft

warm, cold, stormy, (pillow), hard (bricks),
rainy, snowy, cloudy smooth (apple) bumpy
(cookie)

11. Smell
5. Sound
Examples: sweet
Examples: quiet
(perfume), smelly
(library), loud (TV),
I hear... (garbage), ripe (fruit)
noisy (traffic)

6. Taste
Speaking Activity
Examples: sweet
Directions: Use adjectives to
(candy), sour (lemon)
salty (pretzel)
describe things in the room,
outside, or in books.

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