Present continuous (I am doing)

Study this example situation

Sarah is in her car. She is on her way to work.
She’s driving to work.
This means: she is driving now, at the time of speaking. The action is not finished.
am/is/are + -ing is the present continuous:

I	am	(=I’m)	driving
he/she/it	is	(=he’s etc)	working
we/you/they	are	(=we’re etc)	doing etc

I am doing something = I start doing it and I haven’t finished; I’m in the middle of doing it.

• Please don’t make so much noise. I’m trying to work.
• ‘Where’s Mark?’ ‘He’s having a shower.’
• Let’s go out now. It isn’t raining anymore.
• How’s your new job? Are you enjoying it?
• What’s all that noise? What’s going on?

Sometimes the action is not happening at the time of speaking. For example:
Steve is talking to a friend on the phone. He says: I’m reading a really good book at the moment. It’s about a man who …
Steve says “I’m reading …” but he is not reading the book at the time of speaking. He means that he has started reading the book, but has not finished it yet. He is in the middle of reading it.
Some more examples:

• Kate wants to work in Italy, so she’s learning Italian.
• Some friends of mine are building their own house. They hope to finish it next summer.

You can use the present continuous with today/this week/this year etc.(periods around now)

• A: You’re working hard today.
  • B: Yes, I have a lot of to do.
• The company I work for isn’t doing so well this year.

We use the present continuous when we talk about a change that has started to happen. We often use these verbs in this way:

getting, becoming changing, improving
starting, beginning increasing, rising, falling, growing

• Is your English getting better?
• The population of the world is increasing very fast.
• At first I didn’t like my job, but I’m starting to enjoy it now.