The Progressive Form of the Present

In many situations, you will encounter the progressive form of the present tense. There are three forms of the present in English, the simple, progressive, and emphatic. In previous section, you learned the simple forms of the verbs to be, to go, and to have. Compare the two conjugations of the verb to go:

SIMPLE PRESENT

I go
you go
he, she, it goes
we go
they go

PROGRESSIVE PRESENT

I am going
you are going
he, she, it is going
we are going
they are going

To form the progressive present, use the present tense of the verb to be as an auxiliary and add the ending -ing to the infinitive. Sometimes there will be a slight spelling change:

-->the boy runs
-->the boy is running

-->we bake a cake
-->we are baking a cake

Don't be afraid to use contractions with the progressive present forms. You will hear and use I'm going or they're driving much more often that the non-contracted forms.

The Present Perfect Tense:

The present perfect, like the other perfect tenses (future and past perfects), conveys the idea that one thing happens before another time or event. In other words, perfect tenses are always used within a context and not in isolation.

To form the present perfect, use a form of have + past participle:

--They've already dried their clothes.
--I've just finished washing my clothes.
--She's borrowed some detergent.

(In the above, the actions all took place before now. The exact time is unimportant.)