Present Continuous Tense

PRESENT CONTINUOUS TENSE

 

This tense is used to indicate the activities which are in progress

 

The basic pattern is SUBJECT + TO BE (IS, AM, ARE) + VERB 1-ing.

 

Here are the samples in POSITIVE SENTENCES.

	TO BE	VERB 1-ing
I	am	finishing	my job right now
You	are	telling	the useful things
They		swimming	in the river near the village
We		studying	English now
He	is	writing	a letter
She		singing	a dangdut song
It (the cat)		meowing	in the verandah
Rani		making	the fried rice in the kitchen

 

To make NEGATIVE SENTENCES, we just add -not after to be.

	TO BE + not	VERB 1-ing
I	am not	finishing	my job right now
You	are not (aren't)	telling	the useful things
They		swimming	in the river near the village
We		studying	English now
He	is not (isn't)	writing	a letter
She		singing	a dangdut song
the cat		meowing	in the verandah
Rani		making	the fried rice in the kitchen

 

For INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES, we place "to be" in the beginning of sentence.

TO BE		VERB + ing
Am	I	finishing	my job right now ?	Yes, you are
Are	you	telling	the useful things ?	No, I am not
	they	swimming	in the river near the village ?	No, they aren't
	we	studying	English now ?	Yes, we are
Is	he	writing	a letter ?	Yes, he is
	she	singing	a dangdut song ?	No, she isn't
	the cat	meowing	in the verandah ?	Yes, it is
	Rani	making	the fried rice in the kitchen ?	Yes, she is

 

To make questions using QUESTION WORDS, place them in the beginning of interrogative sentence.

	TO BE		VERB + ing
What	am	I	finishing	right now ?	my job
What	are	you	telling	?	the useful things
Where		they	swimming	?	in the river near the village
What		we	studying	now ?	English
What	is	he	writing	?	a letter
What		she	singing	?	a dangdut song
Where		the cat	meowing	?	in the verandah
Where		Rani	making	the fried rice ?	in the kitchen

 

Notes:

• To make question using "WHO", that's so easy. In positive sentence, we just replace "the subject" with "who".

           e.g: He is writing a letter. Who is writing a letter ?

• Present Continuous Tense can be used to express FUTURE PLAN.