Present Continuous Tense

What is present continuous? 

What is present continuous? 

Present continuous is the present form of Be (am/is/are) + Present Participle (-ing verb).


Affirmative: 

I am learning English. 

Mother is helping me.

They are playing cricket.  


Negative:

I am not learning English. 

Mother is not helping me.

They are not playing cricket.  


Short Form:

I’m not learning English. (Not: I am'nt learning English.)

SHe isn’t helping me. or, She's helping me. 

They aren’t playing cricket.  or, They're playing cricket. 


Interrogative:

Am  I learning English?  

Is she helping me? 

Are they playing cricket? 

 


Use of Present Continuous

 


1. For something happening now: 

We use the present continuous when the action is happening now, at the time of speaking. 

They are swimming. 
They are not running.
He is making tea.. 
He is not reading. 


2. For an unfinished action:

We also use present continuous when we are in the middle of an action. We have started doing something, but it is unfinished or incomplete. For example, Bob has met Jack at a bus stand. Look at their conversation. 

Bob: Hi Jack. What are you doing now?
Jack: I am reading an interesting novel. 

Jack is not reading the book just at the time of speaking. He has started the action but is incomplete.



2. With some adverbs :

We use present continuous with the following adverbs: now, today, this week, this month, this year,  this moment, etc. 
I am working hard this week.

They are coming today.  



2. Sceduled event in near future:

We use present continuous to indicate sceduled ivents in near future. The time of action must be mentioned. 
They are coming home tomorrow. 
We are going to cinema after school.


2. With Always & Constantly:

We use present continuous with the expressions ‘Always’ or ‘constantly’ when something boring happens again and again.
He is always coming late. 
You are constantly talking. 
You are disturbing me. 



Present Continuous or Present Simple?

 

We do not use present continuous with verbs of mental activity & stative verbs. We call them Non-Continuous Verbs. They are used in Simple Present.

Examples:

Wrong: I am loving ice-cream. 
Right: I love ice-cream.


Wrong: Honey is tasting sweet.
Right: Honey tastes sweet.


Wrong: He is wanting to learn English.
Right: He wants to learn English.


Wrong: They are fearing tiger.
Right: They fear tiger.


Common Verbs of Mental Activity or State: feel, see, hear, smell, notice, recognize, want, desire, refuse, forgive, wish, care, love, hate, like, dislike, adore, agree, assume, believe, think, feel, realize, understand, know, mean, suppose, expect, remember, recollect, forget, trust, mind, signify, appear, seem, contain, consist, concern, matter.


RULES OF ADDING -ING:

Rule—1: If a verb ends an E, we drop the E and add -ing. 

come ---------- coming

lose ---------- losing

live ---------- living



Rule—2: If a verb of one syllable has one vowel and ends in one consonant, we double the final consonant and add -ing.

cut ---------- cutting 

hit ---------- hitting

get ---------- getting

put ---------- putting

swim ---------- swimming



Rule—3: If a verb ends in -IE, we replace -IE with -Y and add -ing.

die ---------- dying


Rule—4: We can add -ing to other verbs without affective the spelling.

say ---------- saying

go ---------- going

walk ---------- walking