Continuous present tense in English

 Present Continuous in English is mostly used to describe things that are happening at the moment or are happening temporarily. This time has other uses that we will get acquainted with in this section. We first get acquainted with the structure of this time.

 

Continuous structure

The present tense is formed from the past participle of the verb (be (am, is, are) plus the infinitive of the verb (gerund). 

Exceptions in adding ing

1. If the end of the verb was e, it is deleted when converted to gerund, except for verbs whose end is ee, oe, and ye.

Come - coming

Agree - agreeing

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2. For verbs that have a vowel with stress before the last syllable, that vowel is repeated twice, except for verbs ending in w, x, and y.

sit - sitting

fix - fixing

3. In British English, if the current ending is L, it is repeated twice, but in American English, L is repeated once.

travel - travelling 

travel - traveling

 

4. If the end of an verb is ie, it becomes y.

lie - lying

Ask a question

To ask continuous sentences, we can either make yes / no question sentences or ask questions with wh question words. To make the sentences yes / no, we replace the verb be with the subject.
If we want to ask a question with the words wh, we must first turn the news sentence into a question, then delete the part of the sentence we want to ask about, and put the question word at the beginning of the sentence.

Negative

To negate a sentence with a continuum, we must put the verb be after the verb and before the ing part.

I am not speaking 

Continuous applications

1. To talk about what is happening now and when we are talking. Consider the following examples:

 I’m just leaving work . I’ll be home in an hour . 

2. To talk about what is happening before and after a certain time. Consider the following examples:

 At eight o’clock we are usually having breakfast . 

3. To talk about something we consider temporary. Consider the following examples:

 Michael is at university . He’s studying history . 

4. To talk about something that is new and in conflict with previous conditions. Consider the following examples:

 These days most people are using email instead of writing letters . 

5. To talk about something that changes, grows or gets better. Consider the following examples:

 The children are growing quickly .