Use the Present Continuous for something in progress now or around now, temporary situations, and future arrangements: I'm reading. I'm meeting Ana at 6. Form: am / is / are + -ing.
I am reading a great book.
A bar around NOW: the action started before this moment and isn't finished yet.
| Positive | I'm working. · She's working. · They're working. |
|---|---|
| Negative | I'm not working. · She isn't working. |
| Question | Are you working? · Is she working? |
Spelling: drop a final -e (make → making), double a final consonant after a short stressed vowel (run → running), and change -ie to -y (lie → lying).
Please be quiet, the baby is sleeping.
An action in progress at the moment of speaking.
I'm staying with friends this month.
True around now, but only for a limited time.
Prices are rising fast.
Trends and gradual changes that are still going on.
I'm meeting Ana at 6.
Plans already fixed, usually with a time, a place or other people.
Words that often go with this tense. They're hints, not rules.
Look! It _____.
Other present tenses: Present Simple, Present Perfect, Present Perfect Continuous.
Paste an email or an essay. Clarigram marks the mistakes you actually make, shows the rule behind each one as a picture, and builds your practice from them.
Like is normally a state verb, so standard English says I like it. "I'm loving it" exists as an informal, advertising-style phrase, but avoid it in formal writing and exams.
Both work. The Present Continuous suggests the arrangement is fixed (a time, a place, other people): I'm flying to Rome on Friday. Going to stresses your intention: I'm going to learn Italian.
State verbs, which describe states rather than actions: know, believe, understand, like, love, hate, want, need, prefer, own, belong, seem, mean. They normally stay simple even when you mean 'right now': I know, not I'm knowing.