English grammar - Present continuous

Resource centre - English grammar - Present continuous

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Form

am/is/are + present participle (verb + ing)

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Meaning

1. We use present continuous to talk about something that is happening at the time of speaking. The action is not finished.
   • He is speaking to John.
   • What is she doing?
2. We use present continuous to talk about temporary situations.
   • I 'm living in London at the moment.
   • Why is she moving house?
3. We use present continuous to talk about changing situations.
   • You're getting taller and taller every day.
   • The weather's getting warmer.
4. We use present continuous to talk about repeated actions around the time of speaking.
   • I'm seeing Jane a lot these days.
5. We use present continuous with words such as always to talk about things that happen repeatedly (sometimes to say that something is irritating or annoying).
   • She's always complaining about how difficult her life is.
6. We use present continuous to talk about future arrangements.
   • I'm meeting my father at the airport at 5 o'clock tomorrow.
7. When we are talking about how someone looks or feels, we can use present continuous or present simple.
   • How are you feeling? / How do you feel?
   • Jenny is looking really good today? / Jenny looks really good today.

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Additional points

1. We do not normally use some verbs with present continuous because these verbs are not normally action verbs. These verbs include:
   believe, belong, depend, hate, know, like, love, mean, need, prefer, realise, suppose, want, understand.
   • They know each other very well - Correct
     They are knowing each other very well - Incorrect

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Teaching ideas for present continuous

How do you teach present continuous? Add your idea »

Richard

  Students should know the present simple when you get on to the present continuous, so just start by asking about their daily routine. Once they're comfortable with this, interrupt a stronger student who's just said, for example, "I brush my teeth..." and ask him "Are you brushing your teeth now?". Emphasize the "now", and then accept just a "No" as an answer. Keep this going around the class and they'll soon begin to get the idea about the difference. When you feel they're ready, start using negative build-up:

"Are you brushing your teeth now?"
"No"
"Are you sleeping now?"
"No"
"Are you eating an apple now?"
"No"

and then...

"What are you doing now?"
"I'm studying English."

With a lot of repetition and a little prompting, students will get comfortable with this, at which point you can start to introduce negatives and eventually questions. When they're really comfortable, compare with present simple at the same time:

"How often do you play tennis?"
"I play tennis once a week"
"Are you playing tennis now?"
"No, I'm not playing tennis now"

Annette

  In addition to your suggestions, I also distribute some pictures with several people or animals. Either in groups or individually they first state what the scene might be, mainly present, then share as much as they can about what is happening in their pictures.

Martin

  The Mime Trick Game...
Choose a student and take him out of the room and tell him to come back in in a few minutes and mime climbing a tree. Go back in and tell the rest of the students that this student is going to come back in and mime a tree. They can say anything but climbing a tree. It is great for one lesson only but can be used in all classes so it is worth remembering. The kids have a great laugh at keeping the unfortunate student desperately trying to mime this simple action.

Madhavi

  I usually present flash cards to my students with a topic.

For example, I write:

SCHOOL
and then proceed to gives cues such as: classes, library, playground, teachers, students, principal, the drill teacher, watchman

I then ask my pupils to tell the class what each person is doing at that particular moment; this has worked brilliantly in my class and my students came out enthusiastically with correct responses.

Anonymous

  I like to work with several flashcards. First, I show students the pictures and teach them how to form the continuous tense. Then, I have them tell me what everyone is doing in each picture. Afterwards we play this little game with the cards: I share the cards among them and make sure they don't see each other's cards. Then, one at a turn gets to ask each of the colleagues about a picture they assume they have. If they are correct, the one who has the picture should hand it to the one who made the question. The picture should be put aside, so they won't get mixed with the cards on their hands. The winner is the student who gets more cards from the others and doesn't lose as many. This game really works because they get to train the affirmative, interrogative and negative forms of the continuous, and it's lots of fun!

Maura

  I present the learners with a set of flash cards with different actions. I ask them to tell me what they see on the card, after getting their opinions I make a sentence using the present continuous and I explain that the action is happening at that exact moment. I call their attention to the structure of the verb phrase... the auxiliary to be in the present and main verb -ing, then I use the cards again and give them the chance to describe the actions on them, using the correct verb tense.

Hannah

  I find a game that I played in drama class works REALLY well. It's called "What are you doing?" You start with one student who starts doing an action. Another student comes up to him and says, "What are you doing?" The student replies with a LIE, something that they are not doing. Then he sits down and the student who asked begins to do the action that the other student said. A different student comes up and says, "What are you doing?" This student says another action, and the person who asked has to start doing that action. And so on and so forth until all the students have had a turn.

Anonymous

  When I teach present continuous, I use a miming game. I give flashcards to students and ask them to mime the action, the rest of the class try to guess what he/she is doing.

Anonymous

  - Speaking activity - After I have explained the present continuous, I play a movie and I stop it every now and then and ask students what is happening.

Byron

  "I spy"... I pair up students or make small groups depending on how many students I have, then I send students to different classrooms and basically they "spy" on what other students are doing, they have to take notes using the present continuous and write affirmative and negative statements.
Example: "The student with the blue jacket IS playING with a pencil."
They write as many sentences as they can. Finally, students return to the classroom and share what they saw reading the sentences they wrote. As a follow up activity I ask them to turn the statements into yes/no questions and join another group and ask them question about the activities the students were doing in the classroom they had spied on before. I recommend writing a couple of examples to show students how they should do the activity.

Anonymous

  I draw funny stick figures on the board and tell Ss that it's a madhouse. I tell them what one of the patients is doing and ask questions about the others. To revise it, I use a funny poem describing what different members of my family are doing. Then I ask Ss to create their own poem.

Elif

  I use flash cards. I don't show the whole picture though - students try to guess what the people are doing on the card and then I show them the whole picture.

Doni

  I bring some photos of famous people like footballers and ask the students whether they know him or her and what he/she usually does. Then I show them another photo of that person who is for example reading magazines and I ask them what he/she is doing NOW. I write the students suggestions on the board on two different parts: present simple and present continuous.

Flor

  I ask to my students: "Do you think you have a good memory?" Some say yes, a very good one. Others say not so good. Then I challenge them and take them to the balcony and we watch all the people around and they must tell me what they are doing? They tell me the sentences in Spanish. Then we go back in the classroom and I ask them to write the sentences on board in Engish. I highlight the fact that the structure in Spanish and English is the same. El senor esta andando en su bicicleta = sujeto verbo ser o estar verbo terminando en -ando o -iendo complemento. The man is ridding on his bicycle = subject verb to be verb ending in -ing (gerund) complement. This is just the presentation then I work on the different forms, affirmative, interrogative and negative forms and the rules for adding -ing to the verbs. I hope you try it, enjoy it and it is helpful.

The Coach

  I believe that teaching the continuous depends on the original language of the students. Romance languages have this set of tenses, germanic languages do not. For Spanish speakers, progressives should be quite natural. For German speakers, this is actually intermediate to advanced work. The first step is to be fully versed in the original language of your student and be able to make relevant comparisons (specifically when teaching adults).

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