Gramática - (Em Inglês)

1. Present Continuous Tense

1.1 Something that is or isn’t happening right now

The present continuous is a tense used to express one action which is happening at this very moment, giving an idea of movement. The present continuous can also be used to express something that isn’t happening. When someone writes using the present continuous tense this person will likely use adverbs of time such as now, right now, at the moment and etc. However in spoken English it is not so used since most of the time the actions are taking place at the moment of speaking.

The structure of this verb tense is simple; as we are talking about present we’ll use the verb to be (without to) to build our sentences and we’ll also use auxiliary verbs when the sentence is in the negative or in the interrogative form. Also in this tense we’ll have a main verb which will be followed by the particle –ING

Look at the following example:

Ex.: My sister is eating ice-cream.

Note that this sentence has the following structure:

Subject + VERB TO BE + MAIN VERB + ING

We note that the speaker is talking to another person. He or she is telling an action that his or her sister is doing, which means that, the action is being made at the same time in which the speaker is talking.

As you can see the verb to be doesn’t change, but the main verb does, which is ‘eat’ and becomes eat-ing. For coincidence eat is just added to the particle ING and is not followed for any rule.

Let’s see some more examples:

Ex.: Shut up*! I am not listening to what she’s saying.

Ex.: [On the phone] – Hi Nathan, I am at work doing some papers now so I can’t talk.

Ex.: I am coming home in the middle of the night. ♫♪ - Cyndi Lauper’s song.

1.2 Action in process

Until here we noted that the present continuous is used to express an action which is being made at the moment of speaking, however this tense can also be used to express an action which is in process of happening, the action doesn’t necessarily need to be held at the moment of speaking.

Let’s see some examples:

Ex.: I am studying to become a teacher.

The speaker does not need to be with a book or a computer in front of him to study, but it has been clear in the sentence that the speaker is in the process of studying for something that is to happen.

Ex.: My teacher is teaching at the new university in New York.

Ex.: I am reading the book Tom Sawyer. (It doesn’t mean I am with the book right now).

1.3 Future actions

Another way to use the present continuous is to express an action that will or will not happen in the future. Note that to use the present continuous in this way adverbs of future time are required such as; tonight, next week, next weekend etc. Have a look at these examples:

Ex.: I am meeting some friends after work.

Ex.: She is not going to the party tonight.

Ex.: He is coming with us tonight.

It may sound weird to use this tense in such way to express something that will happen, but what you have to keep in mind is the following: when this person is at that time established for the sentence he will be doing the action.

But what about the expression: How are you doing?

Most of the students when start to learn English mistakenly think that the verb doing is being used to ask what someone is really doing, as if the person were practicing some activity, but this is not how this verb is used in this sentence. It is a normal way that native English speaks use just to know: How are you? Are you okay? How do you do? These are expressions that have the same meaning and they are all used to say HELLO.