Present continuous is usually taught right after present simple, and that's exactly why students mix the two up for weeks — "she is work at the hospital" instead of "she works" or "she is working." The tense itself (be + verb-ing) isn't hard to form; the hard part is knowing which of the two present tenses a situation actually calls for.
1. Nail the -ing spelling rules before anything else
Three patterns cover almost every case: double the final consonant after a single stressed vowel (run → running, sit → sitting), drop a silent -e (make → making, write → writing), and change -ie to -y (lie → lying, die → dying). Five minutes of transformation drilling here prevents spelling errors from distracting students during the more important meaning-focused practice later.
2. Teach stative verbs as an explicit exception list
Verbs like like, know, want, love, believe, and understand don't normally take the continuous form ("I am liking this" is a common, very noticeable A2 error) because they describe states, not actions in progress. This is rarely taught as its own point — usually students just meet the exceptions one at a time as errors come up. Teaching the stative-verb category explicitly, with a short list on the board, heads off months of scattered correction.
3. Drill the contrast against present simple directly
The real skill isn't forming present continuous — it's choosing it. Give students paired prompts and have them pick the tense: a permanent habit ("He works in a bank" — present simple) vs. something happening right now ("Look, he's answering the phone" — present continuous). Time expressions are a useful anchor here: "usually/every day/on Mondays" signals present simple, "now/right now/at the moment/look!" signals present continuous.
Common mistakes and how to catch them
- Missing the auxiliary be: "She working now." — very common when a student's L1 doesn't require a linking verb. Drill the full chunk "is/are + verb-ing" as one unit rather than teaching -ing in isolation.
- Present continuous with stative verbs: "I am knowing the answer." — see point 2; the fix is the exception list, not repeated correction.
- Present continuous for habits: "I am playing football every Sunday" instead of "I play football every Sunday" — usually a sign the student hasn't yet internalized which time expressions belong to which tense; go back to the contrast drill in point 3.
A 45-minute lesson shape that works
- 5 min — Warm-up: mime an action, students describe it ("You are writing").
- 10 min — -ing spelling rules, transformation drill only.
- 8 min — Stative verbs as an explicit exception list.
- 12 min — Contrast practice: present simple vs. present continuous, choosing the correct tense from context.
- 10 min — Freer practice: describe what's happening in a picture, or a "right now" classroom description.
Free worksheets for this lesson
- Present Continuous – Grammar Focus (A2) — form introduction.
- Present Continuous – Spelling & Practice (A2) — isolates the -ing spelling rules.
- Present Simple vs. Present Continuous (A2) — the contrast stage.
- Present Continuous – Reading (A2) — receptive practice in context.
- What's Happening Now? – Present Continuous Speaking Practice (A2) — freer oral production.
- Present Continuous – Writing Practice (A2) — freer written production.
- Present Simple & Present Continuous Review – Grammar (B1) — consolidation once both are solid.
Browse the full set of grammar worksheets or filter by A2 level.