Your six sentences
Read out your three continuous and three simple sentences from Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and say why each one is the tense it is.
Three sentences, three errors, all in the form rather than the choice.
1. She working on a new project.
2. They is training two new people.
3. I am work late this week.
Written down, and said out loud
The same six sentences, twice
Written: I am working late. She is training two people. They are moving offices. We are getting busier. He is not coming in. I am not doing anything.
Said: I'm working late. She's training two people. They're moving offices. We're getting busier. He isn't coming in. I'm not doing anything.
Say both versions aloud, at conversation speed, before you answer.
1. What happens to am, is and are in the spoken version?
2. Say They are moving and They're moving. How many syllables in each?
3. Which words are stressed in I'm working late?
4. Why does this matter for listening?
The form, the spelling, and the sound
The two pieces
| Form | Contracted | |
|---|---|---|
| Positive | am / is / are + verb-ing | I'm working · She's working · They're working |
| Negative | am / is / are + not + verb-ing | I'm not working · She isn't working · They aren't working |
| Question | Am / Is / Are + subject + verb-ing | Are you working? Is she working? |
| Short answer | repeat the auxiliary | Yes, I am. / No, she isn't. |
Spelling the -ing
| If the verb ends in… | Do this | Example |
|---|---|---|
| most sounds | add -ing | work → working · train → training |
a silent -e | drop it, add -ing | move → moving · write → writing |
| one vowel + one consonant, stressed | double the consonant | get → getting · run → running · plan → planning |
-ie | becomes -ying | lie → lying · die → dying |
Row 3 is Unit 3 again. Stop → stopped → stopping, plan → planned → planning. The doubling rule you learnt for the past tense is the same rule here.
The -ing sound. It ends in /ŋ/ — the back of the tongue, no /g/ at the end. Working, not workingue. Portuguese has no word-final /ŋ/, so this is the same family of problem as the epenthesis work in Unit 2.
Write the -ing form of the verb in brackets. Spelling counts here — this is the one activity in the unit where it does.
We are (move) to a new building in March, so everybody is (get) boxes from the basement. I am (write) a list of what goes where, and my colleague is (plan) the desk layout. Nobody is (do) any actual work. The IT team are (set) up the new network and they are (run) two systems at once until April.
Match each verb to its -ing form.
Form and choice together
Seven sentences. Some are form errors, some are tense-choice errors, some are the third-person -s. Rewrite each in full.
1. She working late this week.
2. They is moving offices.
3. I am writting a report.
4. He is geting the files.
5. My sister work in a school.
6. At the moment I work on a big project.
7. Do you working tomorrow?
One or two words per gap. Write the auxiliary, contracted where a speaker would contract it.
— What you doing at the moment? — I training two new people. — that going well? — Not really. They not learning very fast. — they enjoying it, at least? — One of them is. The other one not saying much.
What is happening this week
Task card · Speaking
Your week, described to somebody who last saw you a month ago.
Ninety seconds. At least six present continuous forms, all contracted, plus three present simple for the permanent things.
- Contract every auxiliary. I'm, not I am — if it sounds like reading, slow down and start again.
- Watch the -ing: no g sound at the end, no vowel after it.
- Then your teacher asks five questions, all in the continuous, and you answer with short answers.
Two decisions.
1. They are moving offices. How would a speaker say it?
2. Someone asks Are you working late? and you are. Which answer?
Sound and form
Your teacher listened for three things.
1. Did you contract the auxiliaries?
2. The -ing ending — was there a g sound after it?
3. Any state verbs in the continuous?
Before the vocabulary
One question.
1. How do you spell the -ing form of plan?
Before Lesson 4. Write down every word about your own job that you cannot say in English. In Portuguese, or described.
That list is next lesson. The syllabus gives this unit around 130 word families of workplace vocabulary, and yours is the half worth teaching first.