continuous tense

Study the example situation: john is in his house, he is on his way to go to school. he is going to school. this means: he is going now, at that time of speaking. the action still in progress.

1. continuous: S + be (am, is, and are) + verb-ing
2. sometimes, the action is happening in the middle of process: S+ be+ not+ verb-ing
3. interrogative: be + S + verb-ing

examples I:

• I am reading a book
• she/he/it is diving in a sea
• they/we/you are cooking rice

example II:

• It is not raining anymore, lets we go out now
• we are not having lunch today
• I am not watching TV

example III:

• am I watching TV?
• are we having lunch today?
• is it raining?

Using continuous tense is not necessary happening at the time of speaking. for example: Nico wants to study in Roma, so he is learning Italian. (perhaps, he is not learning Italian exactly at the time of speaking) The use of continuous are:

1. when we talk about things happening in a period around now ( today, this night, this morning)
2. when we talk about changes happening around now. e.g: is your English getting better?