Transcript The Present Progressive

The Present Progressive
The present progressive is used
to describe actions that take place
now, in the present.
• He’s meeting her at two o’clock tomorrow
afternoon.
• Imagine the scene, exactly one year ago.
It is two o’clock on a Wednesday
afternoon. I am standing near the old
factory.
• He’s always complaining!
What’s the difference?
•
•
•
•
•
I’ll see her tomorrow
I’ll be seeing her tomorrow.
I’m seeing her tomorrow
I’m to see her tomorrow
I see her tomorrow.
When do we use it?
To express an incomplete action happening
at the moment of speaking (usually a
temporary activity); often with now, at the
moment, right now.
We are discussing the problem right now.
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now, i.e. the moment of speaking
To express incomplete actions that are
taking place, but not necessarily at the
moment of speaking
I am reading an interesting book.
To express an arrangement or plan in the
near future (usually with time expression).
She is giving a party tonight.
To express actions that are repeated
regularly, often with a negative meaning
(and with the words always and forever).
He is always losing his glasses.
When we change our routine or break a
habit, we move from the Present Simple to
the Present Progressive.
He always travels to work by car, but today
he is taking a bus.
When we talk about what is going on around
a particular time that we are thinking of.
You look lovely when you're smiling.
When we talk about developing and changing
situations, even if these are very long-lasting
(verbs like become, decline, decrease, develop,
expand, get, grow).
The climate is getting warmer.
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now, i.e. the moment of speaking
When we talk about repeated actions and
events, if these are happening around the
moment of speaking.
Why is he hitting the dog?
Verbs that refer to physical feelings (feel,
hurt, ache).
How are you feeling?
Time expressions
now, at the moment, right now, today,
tonight, this week, this month, tomorrow,
next week, next month
Form
POSITIVE
Subject
+
am/ is/ are
+
am/ is/ are not
+
verb ing
NEGATIVE
Subject
+
YES/NO
Am/ Is/ Are
QUESTIONS
+
verb ing
subject
+
verb ing
Spelling rules
When the verb ends with the letter e, drop
the single e and add ing.
• love – loving
• smile – smiling
• dance - dancing
For verbs ending in ie, change ie to y before
adding ing.
• die – dying
• tie – tying
• lie – lying
When the last syllable of the verb is written
with a consonant-vowel-consonant and is
stressed, double the last letter before
adding ing.
• beg – begging
• plan – planning
• begin – beginning
But, when the stress is on the beginning of
the verb, just add ing.
• Listen – listening
• Happen – happening
• Visit – visiting
Difficulties
In Hebrew we have only one way of
expressing the present and the idea that
you can do it in more than one way can be
confusing.
Although we tell our students that we can't use
stative verbs in the Present Progressive, in
reality we sometimes use verbs that express
likes, wants, mental states, senses and
appearance in this tense in order to give special
emphasis to the temporariness of the state.
• Sssh, I'm thinking what I want to say.
• I'm loving every moment of it.
• I'm hearing voices…
Our students sometimes are taught that we
use the Present Progressive for "things
that happen now", and they can get into
the habit of tagging now onto every
expression which contains the Present
Progressive.
• She is having lunch now.
• He is sleeping now
• The problem is that we also use the
Present Progressive to refer to future time,
and we can also use many other tenses to
refer to what is happening now (she's
remembered now; he's been reading for
the last hour).
• We also use the adverb now with different
tenses (now she tells me!).