Present Continuous for beginners

continuous tenses present continuous present tenses

The present continuous tense is a basic tense. It is usually one of the first tenses you start to learn when you first start studying English.

intermediate advanced

"Present Continuous" Tense in English grammar

What Is Present Continuous Tense?

We use the present continuous tense to talk about an action or situation that is happening now.

Structure

The present continuous is formed with 'am, is, are + -ing form of the verb'. We can use the full form or the short form of the verb 'be''.

Subject	Full Form	Short Form
I	am working.	I'm working.
He/She/It	is working.	He's, she's, it's working.
We/You/They	are working.	We're, you're, they're working.

Using Present Continuous to Talk about Ongoing Events

Spelling

For most verbs, we add '-ing' to the base form, but when the verb ends in '-e', we remove it and add '-ing'.

make → making
take → taking
come → coming

If the verb ends in a vowel + a consonant and if the last syllable is stressed, we double the consonant.

plan → planning
stop → stopping

Negation

To make this tense negative, add not to am, is, are. For example:

Affirmative	Negative	Short Form
I'm working.	I'm not working.	-
She is eating.	She is not eating.	She isn't eating.
They are waiting.	They are not waiting.	They aren't waiting.

Questions

To make a question use am, is, are at the beginning of a sentence before the subject.

Sentence	Question
I'm working.	Are you working?
She is eating.	Is she eating?

Use

The present continuous tense is used to talk about an ongoing action that is happening now.

I am watching a movie now.

We're eating dinner right now.

She is talking on the phone at the moment.

Present Simple

In this lesson, you will learn all the grammatical features of the Present simple tense in the English language and get familiar with its uses.

Past Simple

Past simple tense is one of the most exciting and important tenses in English. We often use it to talk about what happened before.

Future Simple

The best way to predict the future is to create it. In this lesson, you will learn to talk about the future in English using 'will.'

Past Continuous

The past continuous tense is used quite often in English, so let’s understand exactly when to use it and how to use it. Are you ready? Let's begin.

Future Continuous

The future continuous tense is used by native English speakers quite often and this is your chance to learn and understand this tense so you can start using it.

Present Perfect

Present perfect is a useful tense that talks about an action that happened in an indefinite time in the past. In this lesson, we will learn more about them.

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