Present continuous – I’m doing, I’m not doing, Are you doing?

The Present Continuous / Progressive

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John is in his car. He is in his way to work.   He is driving to work This means he is driving now: “at the time of speaking” This is the present continuous.

The past continuous (progressive) tense

This page will present the present continuous:

• its form
• and its use.

You may also be interested in a lesson about the past continuous

The form of the present continuous tense

The verb to be (in the simple present)	verb + ing

The affirmative forms of the present continuous:

I	am	eating.
’m
You, we, they	are
’re
He, she, it	is
‘s

The interrogative forms of the present continuous

Am	I	eating?
Are	you, we, they
Is	he, she, it

The negative forms of the present continuous

I	am not	eating.
’m not
You, we, they	are not
aren’t
He, she, it	is not
isn’t

The use of the present continuous tense

• The present continuous is used to talk about actions happening at the time of speaking.Example:
  • Where is Mary? She is having a bath. (Not she has a bath)
  • What are you doing at the moment in front of your screen? Don’t you know? Well … you are reading this lesson. You are learning English.
• The present continuous can also be used when an action has started but hasn’t finished yet.Example:
  • I am reading a book; it’s a nice book. (It means = I am not necessarily reading it; I started reading it but I haven’t finished it yet.)

Special verbs

There are verbs which are normally not used in the present continuous.

Examples:

be, believe, belong, hate, hear, like, love, mean, prefer, remain, realize, see, seem, smell, think, understand, want, wish

These verbs are called stative verbs in contrast to action verbs (also referred to as ‘dynamic verbs’) such as ‘work, play, eat, etc.’

It’s not correct to say:

He is wanting to buy a new car.*

You must say:

He wants to buy a new car.

Exercises on the theme: