Grammar

Present Continuous tense

2,180 fill-in-the-gap exercises across 4 forms

For what is happening around now, and for arrangements already fixed. Built from be plus the -ing form.

Pick a form to practice

When you need it

Four situations, and only the first is about this exact second:

• Happening right now. He is taking a shower.
• Going on around this period, not necessarily this minute. She is writing a novel.
• A fixed arrangement in the future. We are meeting the supplier on Thursday.
• A changing situation. The days are getting shorter.

It also carries irritation when paired with always: He is always losing his keys. That is a complaint, not a description of now.

Present Continuous or Present Simple

Ask whether the sentence is about a routine or about this stretch of time.

• She works in Berlin. — that is her job.
• She is working in Berlin. — a temporary posting.

Routine markers pull the Simple: every day, usually, on Mondays, twice a week. Now markers pull the Continuous: at the moment, right now, today, this week, currently.

The verbs that refuse -ing

Some verbs describe states rather than actions, and they stay in the Present Simple even when you mean right now:

• thinking and opinion: know, understand, believe, mean, remember, agree
• liking: like, love, hate, prefer, want, need
• having and being: have (= own), belong, own, contain, cost, seem
• the senses: see, hear, smell, taste

I understand. Never I am understanding.

A few of them change meaning when they do take -ing, and then they are allowed: I am thinking about it (mental activity), She is having lunch (= eating), He is seeing a doctor (= meeting).

Spelling of the -ing form

• silent -e disappears: make → making, write → writing
• one short vowel between two consonants doubles the last: sit → sitting, run → running, stop → stopping
• -ie becomes -y: lie → lying, die → dying
• -ee, -oe, -ye keep the e: see → seeing, agree → agreeing

All forms

Mistakes to avoid