Present Continous Tense

Functions:

a. To describe action in progress at the moment.
b. To describe actions which are happening around now, even though not at the moment              speaking.

Patterns:

(+)  Subject + To be + Verb-ing
(-)   Subject + To be + Not + Verb-ing
(?)  To be + Subject + Verb-ing?

Time Signal:

• At this moment
• Now
• At present

Examples:

(+)  Mr. Andy is teaching English now.
(-)  Mr. Andy is not teaching English now.
(?)  Is Mr. Andy teaching English now? 

(+)  They are playing badminton.
(-)   They are not playing badminton.
(?)   Are they playing badminton?

(+)  I'm writing a letter now.
(-)   I'm not writing aletter now.
(?)  Am I writing a letter now?

Note on -ing ending:

1. Verbs ending in '-e'. the '-e' must be omitted. Examples:

• take - taking
• give - giving
• write - writing

2. Verbs with one syllable, ending in on vowel and one consonant,
     the consonant is doubled. Examples:

• sit - sitting
• dig - digging

3. Verbs ending in -ie. The -ie is changed into -y. Examples:

• die - dying
• lie - lying

4. Verbs with no changes. Examples:

• cry - crying
• go - going
• show - showing
• clean - cleaning
• play - playing