Present Continuous Exercise

Form: 

Here’s how to form the present continuous tense:

Subject + be (am, is, are) + verb-ing  

                            I am

        He / She / It is

We / You / They are

For example:

• I am eating right now.
• She is working right now.
• They are playing right now.
• We are going to the park.(meaning: temporarily)
• He is always complaining.(meaning: repeatedly)

Negative:

To negate present continuous verbs, we simply add not (n’t) after the verb be.

• I am not eating right now.
• She is not working right now.
• They aren’t playing right now.
• We are not going to the park.

Questions:

We make questions in the present continuous tense by shifting the order of the subject and the verb be.

• Are you eating now?
• Is she working right now?
• Are they playing right now?
• Are you going to the park?
• Is he always complaining?

Spelling Notes:

1. If the verb ends with a final e, we omit the e before we add -ing.

• write – writing
• drive – driving
• give – giving

BUT: 

• be – being
• see – seeing
• die – dying

2. If the verb ends in one vowel and one consonant and the last syllable is stressed, we double the final consonant before we add -ing.

• stop – stopping
• run – running
• swim – swimming
• forget  – forgetting
• commit – committing

BUT if the stress is not on the final syllable, we do not double the last letter.

• cover – covering
• remember – remembering

3. If the verb ends in the letter l, we double the l before adding -ing.

• control – controlling
• travel – travelling (American traveling)

Uses:

We use the present continuous tense to express:

1. actions that are happening at the time of speaking (now, right now) 

• I am cooking dinner.
• She’s watching TV right now.
• They are playing in the garden.
• Listen! Someone is screaming.

2. temporary actions that are happening during a specific period of time (this week, this month)

• We are staying at a hotel this week.
• I’m taking a course in Spanish this semester.
• My aunt is living with us at the moment.

3. actions that show development or change of a state

• Prices are rising.
• Your English is improving.
• More people are using social media these days.
• Dian is getting better.

4. future plans and arrangements

• I am meeting a friend for lunch later today.
• The train is arriving at 10 p.m.

5. unplanned repeated actions; we usually use adverbs like always, constantly, continually and forever. The actions are not wanted (or annoying)

• The baby is always crying.
• She’s always asking for extra money.
• My son is constantly spilling things.

IMPORTANT

We use the present continuous tense with action verbs, not stative verbs. Stative verbs describe states of being, such as know, believe, want, have, need, etc. We usually use the simple present tense with stative verbs.