Use the present continuous to describe what you are doing at the moment of speaking.
E.G. “What are you doing Sally?” — “I’m washing my hair.”
We form the present continuous with the present simple of the verb ‘to be’ plus the -ing form of the main verb.
| Verb: base form | Verb: -ing form |
| wash | washing |
| write | writing |
| lie | lying |
| run | running |
Can you work out a spelling rule for these forms?
EXERCISE 1
Now write the –ing form of the following verbs:
| Base form | -ing form | Base form | -ing form | Base form | -ing form |
| Fly | Have | Swim | |||
| Speak | Take | Stop | |||
| Eat | Use | Put | |||
| Cook | Make | Get | |||
| Go | Come | Sit | |||
| Carry | Chase | Drop | |||
| sing | Give | Shop | |||
| Dance | travel | ||||
| tie | |||||
EXERCISE 2
Now Mr Hogwash is showing his class some different photographs and explaining what is happening in each one.
Fill the gaps using the correct form of the present continuous of the verbs given in parentheses:
These are my holiday photos. In this one, I 1.__________(HAVE) breakfast in the hotel. Here I 2._________ (LIE) on the beach and 3.__________(SUNBATHE). This is a picture of Mavis in the sea: She 4.__________(SWIM). I took this picture on my birthday: my mum 5._________(MAKE) me a cake. Here Mavis and I 6.________ (SIT) by the swimming pool. She 7.________ (DRINK) a cocktail and I 8.__________ (RELAX). And what Reggie 9._______(DO)? He 10.________ (SIT) at home, 11.__________(WATCH) television, of course!
EXERCISE 3 | Present continuous in the negative form
Fill the gaps in the table below using the verbs given on the left-hand side:
| Long form | Short form | |
|
speak |
I am 1._________ | I’m 7._________ |
| I am not 2._________ | I’m not 8._________ | |
|
dance |
You are 3._________ | You’re 9._________ |
| You are not 4._________ | You’re not/You aren’t 10._________ | |
|
stop |
He is 5._________ | He’s 11._________ |
| He is not 6._________ | He’s not/He isn’t 12._________ |