PRESENT PROGRESSIVE

Present Progressive/Continuous 

1) actions happening at the moment of speaking

Peter is reading a book now.

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2) fixed plan in the near future

She is going to Basel on Saturday.

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3) temporary actions

His father is working in Rome this month.

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4) actions happening around the moment of speaking (longer actions)

My friend is preparing for his exams.

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5) trends

More and more people are using their computers to listen to music.

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6) repeated actions which are irritating to the speaker (with always, constantly, forever)

Andrew is always coming late.

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Signal words

now, at the moment, Look! Listen!

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Form

to be (am, are, is) + infinitive + -ing

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Examples

Affirmative sentences:

I am playing football. I'm playing football.

You are playing football. You're playing football.

Negative sentences:

I am not playing football. I'm not playing football.

You are not playing football. You're not playing football. You aren't playing football.

Questions:

Am I playing football?

Are you playing football?

Present continuous spelling rules

Continuous verbs

To make continuous verbs add -ing to the base verb:

do becomes doing
ask becomes asking

Silent 'e'

When the verb ends with a silent e, drop the e and add -ing:

make becomes making
take becomes taking

One-syllable verbs

For short, one-syllable verbs, that end with consonant + vowel + consonant (CVC), we must double the last consonant and then add -ing:

swim becomes swimming
run becomes running

w, x and y

For words that end w, x and y, do not double the last consonant; just add -ing:

enjoy becomes enjoying
study becomes studying

Two-syllable words

When words have two or more syllables ending in CVC, you must double the last consonant if the last syllable is stressed. When the last syllable is not stressed, just add -ing.

The last syllable is stressed:
commit becomes committing

The last syllable is not stressed:
whisper becomes whispering

-ie verbs

For verbs that end in -ie, change the ie to y before adding -ing:

die becomes dying