English Grammar

CHAPTER 3. THE PRESENT CONTINUOUS

1. Uses of the present continuous
In English, the Present Continuous tense is usually used to express continuing, ongoing actions which are taking place at the moment of speaking or writing. In the examples given below, the verbs in the Present Continuous tense are underlined.
e.g. Right now I am cooking supper.
At the moment the plane is flying over the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

The Present Continuous tense is often used in conversation.
e.g. "What are you doing?"
"I am working on my English assignment."

Occasionally, the Present Continuous tense is used to refer to a future event.
e.g. We are leaving tomorrow.

2. Formation of the present continuous
The Present Continuous tense of any verb is formed from the Simple Present of the auxiliary to be, followed by what is generally referred to as the present participle of the verb.

The present participle of a verb is formed by adding ing to the bare infinitive. For instance, the present participle of the verb to work is working.

Thus, the Present Continuous tense of the verb to work is conjugated as follows:

I am working

you are working

he is working

she is working

it is working

we are working

they are working

See Exercise 1.

3. Spelling rules for the formation of the present participle
Some verbs change their spelling when the ending ing is added to form the present participle.

a. Verbs ending in a silent e
When a verb ends in a silent e, the silent e is dropped before the ending ing is added. For example:

Infinitive	Present Participle
to close	closing
to dine	dining
to leave	leaving
to move	moving

However, when a verb ends in an e which is not silent, the final e is not dropped before the ending ing is added. For example:

Infinitive	Present Participle
to be	being
to see	seeing

b. Verbs ending in ie
When a verb ends in ie, the ie is changed to y before the ending ing is added. For example:

Infinitive	Present Participle
to die	dying
to lie	lying

When a verb ends in y, no change is made before the ending is added. For example:

Infinitive	Present Participle
to fly	flying
to play	playing

See Exercise 2.

c. One-syllable verbs ending in a single consonant preceded by a single vowel
Except in the case of the final consonants w, x and y, when a one-syllable verb ends in a single consonant preceded by a single vowel, the final consonant must be doubled before the ending ing is added. The reason for this is to reflect the fact that the pronunciation of the single vowel does not change when the ending ing is added.

English vowels have a variety of pronunciations. For instance, each English vowel has two contrasting pronunciations, which are sometimes referred to as short and long. Vowels which are followed by two consonants, and vowels which are followed by a single consonant at the end of a word, are generally pronounced short. In contrast, vowels which are followed by a single consonant followed by another vowel are generally pronounced long.

In the table below, the underlined vowels in the left-hand column are pronounced short; whereas the underlined vowels in the right-hand column are pronounced long. For example:

Short Vowels	Long Vowels
fat	fate
tapping	taping
let	delete
win	wine
filling	filing
not	note
hopping	hoping
flutter	flute

Thus, in the case of most one-syllable verbs ending in a single consonant preceded by a single vowel, the vowel is pronounced short. In order to reflect the fact that the vowel is also pronounced short in the corresponding present participle, except in the case of w, x and y, the final consonant must be doubled before the ending ing is added.

In the following examples, the consonants which have been doubled are
underlined. For example:

Infinitive	Present Participle
to nod	nodding
to dig	digging
to run	running
to clap	clapping
to set	setting

When a verb ends in w, x or y preceded by a single vowel, the final consonant is not doubled before the ending is added. For example:

Infinitive	Present Participle
to draw	drawing
to fix	fixing
to say	saying

It should also be noted that when a verb ends in a single consonant preceded by two vowels, the final consonant is not doubled before the ending is added. The reason for this is that two vowels together are generally pronounced long. For example:

Infinitive	Present Participle
to rain	raining
to read	reading
to meet	meeting
to soak	soaking

See Exercise 3.

d. Verbs of more than one syllable which end in a single consonant preceded by a single vowel
When a verb of more than one syllable ends in a single consonant other than w, x or y preceded by a single vowel, the final consonant is doubled to form the present participle only when the last syllable of the verb is pronounced with the heaviest stress.

For instance, in the following examples, the last syllables of the verbs have the heaviest stress, and the final consonants are doubled to form the present participles. In these examples, the syllables pronounced with the heaviest stress are underlined. For example:

Infinitive	Present Participle
to expel	expelling
to begin	beginning
to occur	occurring
to omit	omitting

When a verb of more than one syllable ends in w, x or y, the final consonant is not doubled before the ending ing is added. In the following examples, the syllables pronounced with the heaviest stress are underlined. For example:

Infinitive	Present Participle
to allow	allowing
to affix	affixing
to convey	conveying

When the last syllable of a verb is not pronounced with the heaviest stress, the final consonant is usually not doubled to form the present participle. For instance, in the following examples, the last syllables of the verbs do not have the heaviest stress, and the final consonants are not doubled to form the present participles. In these examples, the syllables pronounced with the heaviest stress are underlined. For example:

Infinitive	Present Participle
to listen	listening
to order	ordering
to focus	focusing
to limit	limiting

If necessary, a dictionary can be consulted to determine which syllable of a verb has the heaviest stress. Many dictionaries use symbols such as apostrophes to indicate which syllables are pronounced with the heaviest stress.

See Exercise 4.

It should be noted that British and American spelling rules differ for verbs which end in a single l preceded by a single vowel. In British spelling, the l is always doubled before the endings ing and ed
are added. However, in American spelling, verbs ending with a single l follow the same rule as other verbs; the l is doubled only when the last syllable has the heaviest stress. In the following examples, the syllables with the heaviest stress are underlined. For example:

Infinitive	Present Participle
	American Spelling	British Spelling
to signal	signaling	signalling
to travel	traveling	travelling

to compel	compelling	compelling
to propel	propelling	propelling

From these examples it can be seen that the American and British spellings for verbs ending in a single l differ only when the last syllable does not have the heaviest stress.

4. Questions and negative statements
a. Questions
In the Present Continuous, the verb to be acts as an auxiliary. As is the case with other English tenses, it is the auxiliary which is used to form questions and negative statements.

To form a question in the Present Continuous tense, the auxiliary is placed before the subject. For example:

Affirmative Statement	Question
I am working.	Am I working?
You are working.	Are you working?
He is working.	Is he working?
She is working.	Is she working?
It is working.	Is it working?
We are working.	Are we working?
They are working.	Are they working?

See Exercise 5.

b. Negative statements
To form a negative statement, the word not is added after the auxiliary. For example:

Affirmative Statement	Negative Statement
I am working.	I am not working.
You are working.	You are not working.
He is working.	He is not working.
She is working.	She is not working.
It is working.	It is not working.
We are working.	We are not working.
They are working.	They are not working.

See Exercise 6.

c. Negative questions
To form a negative question, the auxiliary is placed before the subject, and the word not is placed after the subject. However, when contractions are used, the contracted form of not follows immediately after the auxiliary. Although there is no universally accepted contraction for am not, the expression aren't I? is often used in spoken English. For example:

Without Contractions	With Contractions
Am I not working?	[Aren't I working?] - used in speaking
Are you not working?	Aren't you working?
Is he not working?	Isn't he working?
Is she not working?	Isn't she working?
Is it not working?	Isn't it working?
Are we not working?	Aren't we working?
Are they not working?	Aren't they working?

See Exercise 7.

d. Tag questions
Tag questions are also formed using the auxiliary. In the following examples, the tag questions are underlined. In spoken English, aren't I? is often used as a tag question. For example:

Affirmative Statement	Affirmative Statement with Tag Question
I am working.	I am working, am I not?
You are working.	You are working, aren't you?
He is working.	He is working, isn't he?
She is working.	She is working, isn't she?
It is working.	It is working, isn't it?
We are working.	We are working, aren't we?
They are working.	They are working, aren't they?

See Exercise 8.

5. Comparison of the uses of the simple present and present continuous
As pointed out in Chapter 1, the Simple Present tense may be used for stating general truths, and for referring to actions which occur at regular intervals. In the following examples, the verbs in the Simple Present tense are underlined.
e.g. Nova Scotia is a Canadian province. Geese fly south every winter.

In contrast, the Present Continuous tense is usually used to refer to ongoing actions happening at the time of speaking or writing. In the following examples, the verbs in the Present Continuous tense are underlined.
e.g. Right now, I am visiting the province of Nova Scotia. At the moment, a flock of geese is flying overhead.

See Exercise 9.