01/03/2020
From Singlish to English improve your English in 2-3 minutes a day.
Lesson 1. 1st March 2020
English is a very precise language, the use of just one or two letter words, or the form of the word makes a big difference in being able to speak it well. In English we use tenses to refer to time, past present and future. In today’s lesson we will talk about the present continuous tense.
Present Continuous Tense
The present continuous tense is used to talk about actions, or states (i.e thinking or believing) that are in progress. i.e they’re happening now and still happening, a changing or temporary situation, or an annoying habit.
The form of the present continuous tense in the positive, negative and question form goes as follows ;-
➕ Subject + BE Present simple + VERB (infinitive, base form) + ing.
_______________________________________
I am going.
He / she / it is going.
We / you / they are going.
➖ Subject + BE Present simple + NOT VERB (infinitive, base form) + ing.
I am not going.
He / she / it is not going.
We / you / they are not going.
❓ (QW + be) + Subject + VERB (infinitive, base form) + ing.
QW= question word, who, what, where when or why)
_______________________________________
Am I going?
Is he / she / it going?
Are we / you / they going?
Present continuous examples:
➕ “I am going to the tryout”.
➖ “She is not going to the championship”.
❓ “Are they going for the test ?”.
nb; in the question form we can use a question word in front of the verb “be” ie “Where is she going for the test”?
Probably the most common use of Singlish and misuse of English is to omit (leave out) the auxiliary verb. i.e people say “I going market” instead of “I am going to the market”.
Be is one of the most commonly used auxiliary verbs in the English language and should be learnt very early! The two other most common auxiliary verbs are have and do. We will cover these auxiliaries in the next lessons.
nb; “to” is a preposition and "the" is an article, which we will cover in future topics.
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