The Progressive
Form of the Present
In many situations, you will encounter
the progressive form of the present tense.
There are three forms of the present in
English, the simple, progressive, and
emphatic. In previous section, you learned
the simple forms of the verbs to be, to
go, and to have. Compare the two conjugations
of the verb to go:
SIMPLE PRESENT
I go
you go
he, she, it goes
we go
they go
PROGRESSIVE PRESENT
I am going
you are going
he, she, it is going
we are going
they are going
To form the progressive present, use the
present tense of the verb to be as an
auxiliary and add the ending -ing to the
infinitive. Sometimes there will be a
slight spelling change:
-->the boy runs
-->the boy is running
-->we bake a cake
-->we are baking a cake
Don't be afraid to use contractions with
the progressive present forms. You will
hear and use I'm going or they're driving
much more often that the non-contracted
forms.
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