Resource centre / English grammar / Present continuous
Affirmative
I am playing
You are playing
He/she/it is playing
We are playing
You are playing (plural)
They are playing
Negative
I am not playing
You are not playing
He/she/it is not playing
We are not playing
You are not playing
They are not playing
Question
Am I playing?
Are you playing?
Is he/she/it playing?
Are we playing?
Are you playing?
Are they playing?
1. We use the 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 the present continuous to talk about temporary situations.
I am living in London at the moment.
Why is she moving house?
3. We use the present continuous to talk about changing situations.
You're getting taller and taller every day.
The weather's getting warmer.
4. We use the present continuous to talk about repeated actions around the time of speaking.
I'm seeing Jane a lot these days.
5. We use the 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 the present continuous to talk about future arrangements.
I'm meeting my father at the airport at 5 o'clock tomorrow.
1. When we are talking about how someone looks or feels, we can use the present continuous or present simple.
How are you feeling? / How do you feel?
Jenny is looking really good today? / Jenny looks really good today.
2. We do not normally use some verbs in the past continuous tense, 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.
They are knowing each other very well. x
See also: Present simple / Present perfect / Past continuous
Teaching Present continuous
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:
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."
The Mime Trick Game...
I usually present flash cards to my students with a topic.
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!"
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."
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."
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."
- 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."
"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.
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.
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. © eslbase 2005-2009 - TEFL jobs and TEFL courses, information, advice and ESL resources for teachers - English grammar: Present continuous