EL present continuous es un formato verbal utilizado para acciones o eventos que están sucediendo o desarrollándose ahora. Es imprescindible formar el present continuous a partir del tiempo presente del verbo to be y el participio presente de los verbos terminados en -ing (learn - learning):
- I am dancing (am -forma conjugada del verbo to be + dance /dancing). Ver conjugación verbo to be
- She is coming home. (come + -ing se convierte en coming) - Ver explicación sobre verbos
- They are waiting for you
Hay varias formas de utilizar el present continuous:
✦ Para hablar de algo que está sucediendo en el momento
- Your father is working. Please, don't bother him.
- Please, don't make noise! We are reading.
- I am working at the moment.
✦ Para mostrar que algo está cambiando y se está desarrollando
- The world is changing faster than we expected.
- My father is showing a different attitude towards me.
- As time goes by, I am falling in love with her.
- My son is growing very fast. He is still a teenager.
✦ Para algo temporal
- I am staying in Paris for six months.
- The carpenter is working during weekends in August.
- Don't worry, he is thinking of a day love adventure.
✦ Para algo que sucede antes y después de un tiempo dado
- My football team is always training when I arrive to the club.
- We are usually jogging from Monday to Friday during the year.
- The weatherman said, "we are still having bad weather until Sunday".
✦ Algo nuevo que contrasta con una situación previa
- People are sending emails these days instead of Christmas cards.
- Peter is now riding a bicycle, whereas before he only drove the car.
- My children used play in the garden, now they are only watching TV.
✦ Un suceso que se manifiesta de forma repetida; suele utilizar adverbios de frecuencia, always, often, etc.
- Teenagers are always sending messages on Twitter.
- My parents are going often enough to the cinema.
- John is always cracking jokes.
✦ El present continuous también se utiliza para hablar del futuro
- My daughter Mary is going to Oxford University next year.
- Where are you celebrating the following Christmas?
- My brother is planning a stag party for next month.
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