The present continuous tense (present progressive)

I. The Present Continuous is formed by means of the Present Indefinite of the auxiliary verb to be and Participle I of the notional verb.

e.g. I am writing now.

In the interrogative form the auxiliary verb is placed before the subject.

e.g. Am I writing now?

In the negative form the particle “not” is placed after the auxiliary verb.

e.g. I am not writing now.

II. The Present Continuous is used to denote:

1. An action going on at the present moment, at the moment of speaking

e.g. “Where is Nick?” “He is talking to Mother”.

Note: The Present Indefinite, not the Present Continuous, is used to denote actions, going on at the present moment when the fact is important and not the process.

e.g. Why don’t you read your examples?

Why don't you answer? What’s the matter?

2. An action going on at the present period which includes the moment of

speaking. The action may or not be going on at the actual moment of speaking.

e.g. “What are you doing in Moscow?”

“I’m writing a play,” said Alex. (He is not doing it exactly at the moment of speaking.)

Tom isn’t playing football this season. He wants to concentrate on his studies.

3. The Present Continuous is used when we talk about

a) changing situations:

e.g. The population of the world is rising very fast, (not “rises”) Is your English getting better? (not “does …get”)

b) temporary situations:

e.g. I am living with my friends until I can find a flat.

But: My parents live in London. They have been there for 20 years.

4. The Present Continuous is used to express a continual process. In this case

the adverbs always, constantly, ever are used.

e.g. The sun is ever shining.

The earth is always moving.

5. The Present Continuous is used to express an action thought of as a con­tinual process (with the adverbs always, constantly, ever). Such sentences are emotionally coloured.

e.g. She is constantly grumbling!

Oh, the English! They are always thinking of tea!

6. When there are two actions one of which is in progress and the other is a habitual action, the first is expressed by the Present Continuous and the second by the Present Indefinite.

e.g. I never talk while I am working.

7. The Present Continuous is used to denote a future action which will take

place due (должное, надлежащее) to a previous arrangement (предварительная договорённость). The future action is regarded (считается) as something fixed. e.g. My sister is coming from London tomorrow.

We can use the expression to be going to (do) when we say, what we intend to do in the future.

e.g. I am going to travel round the world.

Note: Some verbs are not used in the Continuous form: see, hear, notice; like, love, hate, prefer, dislike, respect; want, wish, desire; know, under­stand, suppose, seem, mean, remember, recognize, think(= believe, consider), believe, agree, allow, belong, have(= possess), etc.

But: many of the verbs in the list above, however, admit of the Continuous

form when they are used in other meanings.

e.g. Are you seeing Clare tonight? (to see = to meet)

He is busy now. He is having a lesson. (to have a lesson = to study)