Present Continuous Tense

The Present Continuous tense is a versatile grammatical structure in English used to express actions happening at the moment of speaking, temporary situations, or planned future events. This tense is formed by combining a form of the verb "be" (am, is, are) with the main verb ending in -ing.

Key points about the Present Continuous:

• Used for actions happening now or around the present time
• Expresses temporary situations
• Indicates planned future actions
• Formed with "be" (am/is/are) + verb-ing

Definition: The Present Continuous tense describes ongoing actions or temporary states in the present moment.

Affirmative Sentences

The structure for affirmative sentences in Present Continuous is:

Subject + am/is/are + verb-ing + rest of the sentence

Examples:

• I am feeding the dog.
• He/She/It is feeding the dog.
• We/You/They are feeding the dog.

Example: "I'm reading a book right now." (action happening at the moment)

Negative Sentences

To form negative sentences, add "not" after am/is/are:

• I am not feeding the dog.
• He/She/It is not feeding the dog.
• We/You/They are not feeding the dog.

Contractions are common in spoken English:

• I'm not
• He/She/It isn't
• We/You/They aren't

Highlight: In negative sentences, "not" is placed after the auxiliary verb (am/is/are), while the rest of the sentence remains unchanged.

Adding -ing to Verbs

Rules for adding the -ing ending:

1. For most verbs, simply add -ing:

   • talk → talking
   • play → playing

2. For verbs ending in -e, remove the -e and add -ing:

   • take → taking
   • write → writing

3. For short verbs with one syllable, one vowel, and ending in a consonant, double the final consonant:

   • run → running
   • swim → swimming

Vocabulary: Monosyllabic verbs are words with only one syllable, like "run" or "swim".