GRAMMAR

Present Progressive or Present Continuous

We use the present progressive to talk about:

 Something that is happening now: It’s raining

We often use these time expressions: NOW, RIGHT NOW → Clara is doing her homework
NOW.
 Temporary events that are happening during a definite period. We often use time
expressions such as: TODAY, THIS WEEK, THIS MONTH → I’m not working THIS WEEK. /
We’re studying the Romans in History THIS MONTH.

am
.+ base form of the
subject .+ are .+ -ing
verb
is

I’m watching TV.

You / We / They ‘re listening to music.
He / She / It is sleeping.

We add n´t (not) to the verb TO BE to form negatives:

I’m not playing computer games.
You aren’t having a party.
She isn’t eating.

We change the word order of the subject and the verb TO BE in questions:
Am I talking?. Yes, you are. / No, you aren’t.
Are you shopping?. Yes, I am. / No, I’m not.
Is she reading?. Yes, she is. / No, she isn’t.
Are they eating?. Yes, they are. / No, they aren’t.

Common mistakes:
They jogging. They’re jogging.
She’s dance. She’s dancing.
You are watching TV?. Are you watching TV?.

Spelling variations

 For most verbs, we add –ING to the base form: play → playing
 When the verb ends in –E, we drop the –E and add –ING: have → having
 For short verbs ending in a vowel plus a consonant, we double the final consonant
and add –ING: sit → sitting
 The verb TRAVEL is irregular: travel → traveling

Present Simple and Present Progressive

 We don’t usually use state verbs in present progressive, e.g. LIKE, LOVE, HATE,
UNDERSTAND, KNOW, WANT, BELIEVE.

Common mistakes:

I’m not wanting pizza. I don’t want pizza.

PRESENT SIMPLE PRESENT CONTINUOUS

What do you do every day? What are you doing at the moment?
I often walk to school. I'm walking to school now.
He doesn't usually watch TV in the evening. He isn't watching TV this evening.

Look!
Some sentences have no time expressions, but we can usually guess when the action happens
from the context.

Susan brushes her teeth. (When? Every day.)

Look! It’s snowing! (When? Now.)