Present continuous tense in English

The present continuous tense is a very basic tense among the 12 English tenses. However, there are still some people who have not fully grasped and do not know how to use the present continuous tense. So let's explore the structure, verb conjugation, usage, present continuous tense examples and do some practice exercises of the present continuous tense in the following article!

I. Overview of Present continuous tense 

The present continuous tense expresses events or actions happening right at the moment of speaking or around the time of speaking, the event and action have not yet ended and will continue to occur in the future. Here are some present continuous examples:

• I am studying English right now. 

• The band is playing live in King Palace right now. 

• We are having a birthday party at the moment. 

II. Structure of Present continuous tense

The structure of the present continuous tense is divided into 3 forms: affirmative, negative, and interrogative, specifically as follows:

III. Present continuous rules on conjugating V-ing 

When using the present continuous tense or other continuous tenses in English, we must use V-ing. The specific rules are:

Verb + ING 

Example:

• Jennie is learning to dance now. 

• We are cooking dinner. 

Normally, we just need to add "ING" after the verb, but there are some special cases below that you should note:

1. For verbs ending in "e"

For verbs ending in "e", the rule for adding the "ing" ending is to drop the "e" and then add "-ing". Example:

• leave – leaving. Example: I'm leaving class at the moment. 

• ride – riding. Example: Jack is riding a horse. 

• come – coming. Example: The bus is coming. 

Important note: If it ends in "ee", you should note that the rule for adding ING here is that we do not drop the "e" but simply add "-ing" as normal.

• agree - agreeing. Example: I am agreeing with Jack’s idea. 

• flee - fleeing. Example: Thousands of fugitives are fleeing from the war-torn area. 

2. For verbs ending in "ie"

For verbs ending in "ie", the rule for adding the "ing" ending is to change the "ie" to "y" and then add "-ing". Example:

• lie – lying. Example: John is lying. 

• die – dying. Example: The cat is dying. 

• tie - tying. Example: I am typing the letter. 

3. For verbs ending in a consonant, preceded by a vowel

For one-syllable verbs ending in a consonant, preceded by a vowel, the rule for adding the "ing" ending is to double the final consonant and then add "-ing". Example:

• stop – stopping. Example: Anna is stopping only to enjoy the quiet of the park. 

• get – getting. Example: I am getting better. 

• put – putting. Example: Jackson is putting money in his wallet. 

For multi-syllable verbs with stress on the final syllable, ending in a consonant, preceded by a vowel, the rule is also to double the final consonant and then add "-ing". Example:

• Begin – beginning. Example: It is beginning to get cold. 

• forget - forgetting. Example: I am forgetting the old memory. 

For multi-syllable verbs with the stress not on the final syllable, ending in a consonant, you just add "-ing" as normal. Example: 

• offer - offering. Example: Maria is offering me a 10% discount on the phone. 

• happen - happening. Example:  What is happening? 

• visit - visiting. Example:  We are visiting the famous singer’s house.

IV. How to use Present continuous tense

There are 4 ways to use Present continuous tense, specifically:

1. Describing an action/event happening at the time of speaking

The Present Continuous Tense is used to describe an action/event that is happening at the exact moment of speaking. Example:

• They are watching TV now. 

• Tim is riding his bicycle to school at the moment. 

2. Describing an action/event happening but not necessarily at the time of speaking

The Present Continuous Tense is used to describe an action/event that is generally happening, but not necessarily at the exact moment of speaking. Example:

• I am looking for a job. 

• He is reading “Gone with the wind”. 

3. Describing an action/event about to happen in the near future

The Present Continuous Tense is used to describe an action/event that is about to happen in the near future. This often describes a pre-scheduled plan. Example:

• I am flying to Kyoto tomorrow. 

• What are you doing next week? 

4. Describing a repeated action/event that is annoying or bothersome

The Present Continuous Tense can also be used to complain about a repeatedly occurring action/event that is annoying or bothersome. You can easily identify this when the sentence contains frequency adverbs like "always", "continually", etc.

Example:

• She is always going to work late. 

• You are always messing things up.

V. Signs to identify the Present Continuous Tense

To identify the Present Continuous Tense, you can look for the following signs:

1. Adverbs of time

2. The appearance of attention-grabbing verbs in the sentence

VI. Verbs that cannot be used in the Present Continuous Tense

Here are some perceptual verbs that absolutely cannot be used in the Present Continuous Tense. These verbs express awareness or thought, perspective.

• Appear

• Believe

• Belong

• Contain

• Depend

• Forget

• Hate

• Hope

• Know

• Lack

• Like

• Love

• Mean

• Need

• Prefer

• Realize

• Remember

• Seem

• Sound

• Suppose

• Taste

• Understand

• Want

• Wish

• ……

VII. Detailed Present Continuous Tense exercise exercises 

To better understand the structure and usage of the Present Continuous Tense, let's complete the exercises below with PREP!

1. Exercise

Exercise 1. Conjugate the verbs in parentheses

1. My aunt __________________ (buy) some fruits at the flea market.

2. Lisa __________________ (not/study) French in her room. She’s at the coffee shop with her classmates.

3. __________________ (she, run) in the stadium?

4. My cat __________________ (eat) now.

5. What __________________ (you, wait) for?

6. Their competitors __________________ (not/try) hard enough in the competition.

7. All of Linda’s friends __________________ (have) fun at the concert right now.

8. My friend __________________ (travel) around Korea now.

9. My little sister __________________ (drink) juice.

10. Listen! Our teacher __________________ (speak).

Exercise 2. Complete the paragraph by conjugating the appropriate verbs

This is Ms.Liz. She ______ (1.be) a primary school teacher in the center town. She _________ (2.teach) Chinese and English. Now, she ________ (3.teach) Chinese. She ________ (4.live) in Moscow with her family at present. She ________ (5.be) married to David, who is Canadian. They ______ (6.have) 4 childrens. Although Ms.Liz ________ (7.speak) Japanese as well as Chinese, she ________ (8.not/teach) English.

2. Answers

This article covers the comprehensive knowledge about the Present Continuous Tense in English, which is part of the IELTS course at PREP. Hopefully these specific insights will help you easily apply them in your upcoming English exams to achieve a high score.