The following lesson and worksheets will teach you how to use the simple present tense and the present progressive tense correctly in all your writing.
The verb changes to express something that happens in the simple present or the present progressive time.
The Simple Present Verb Tense is a timeless truth, something that is happening all the time, actions that we do all the time, The present tense verbs tells about activities that we do again and again.
We use the Present Progressive Verb Tense to talk about actions that are in progress right now at the moment of speaking. They are activities that are continuing. The verb, "To Be" plus the "ing" of the verb make the present progressive verb tense. See the verb "To Be" chart below.
| Simple Present | Present Progressive |
|---|---|
| buy | buying |
| break | breaking |
| choose | choosing |
| cost | costing |
| drink | drinking |
| eat | eating |
| fly | flying |
| pay | paying |
| ring | ringing |
| see | seeing |
| send | sending |
| write | writing |
| Singular Noun and Verb | Plural Noun and Verb |
|---|---|
| I am | We are |
| You are | You are |
| She is, He is, It is | They are |
We may use time words to tell about our present tense actions. We use time words to explain what we are doing right now. Time words also tell how often an action is happening.
| always | 100% | ~ all of the time |
| usually | 95% | ~ most of the time |
| often | 80% | ~ frequently |
| sometimes | 40% | ~ occasionally |
| seldom | 5% | ~ almost never, rarely |
| never | 0% | ~ none of the time, never |
Writing Tip: The verb is the word we use to indicate the time of an event. Events may happen in the present tense (e.g. right now), or the past tense (e.g. yesterday, four hours ago), or future tense (e.g. tomorrow, in ten minutes).