present continuous

[aysaa]

Hi,

- Michael is working in a cafe until he finds a job in his field.
- He is swimming every morning.
- They are working late every night.
- At 8 o’clock I am usually driving to work so phone me on my mobile.

I have some trouble about using êvery morning, every night, usually, until,...etc in the present continuous. What I have understood is the sentences I have written above are all correct, but the sentences below are not OK. Is it right?

(But NOT: My dad is usually reading the newspaper everyday).
(But NOT: In general, I am sleeping here).

Thanks.

 

[Tdol]

Re: present continious

Why do you want to use the present continuous in, say, the second of your examples? It's possible, but what's the intended meaning?

 

[UM Chakma]

Re: present continious

I would say I swim every morning. Because it's general habit. Also I would say my dad reads newspapers everyday but if he is reading now I would day my dad is reading newspapers now. It's possible that my dad is reading newspapers everyday but it doesn't make sense.

I just shared my views.
(student)

 

[Raymott]

Re: present continious

Don't you mean "At 8 o’clock I am usually driving to work so don't phone me on my mobile"? Unless taking mobile calls while driving is legal in Turkey.

 

[charliedeut]

Re: present continious

aysaa, please note the correct spelling of "continuous" (as used by Tdol in post #2) as opposed to your "continious" in the thread title.

 

[aysaa]

Present Continuous Use (or Present Progressive Use)
Present Continuous | Present Simple ESL

I have seen the sentences in these sites, and I just wanted to learn if those are OK or not.

 

[bhaisahab]

Present Continuous Use (or Present Progressive Use)
Present Continuous | Present Simple ESL

I have seen the sentences in these sites, and I just wanted to learn if those are OK or not.

What makes you think that the examples on those sites might be wrong?

 

[Yiagos]

What about redudancy using Present Continuous? :roll:
Assume the dialogues:

- Anna, where is John?
- He is in room.
- What is he doing?
- He is surfing on forums now.


(telephone chat)

- Well John, are you planning something on next days?
- No, I am not planning anything.
- Why? I think you are an ambitious man.
- Please don't ask me anymore, because I am enjoying your chat at this moment.

 

[bhaisahab]

What about redudancy using Present Continuous? :roll:
Assume the dialogues:

- Anna, where is John?
- He is in room.
- What is he doing?
- He is surfing on forums now.


(telephone chat)

- Well John, are you planning something on next days?
- No, I am not planning anything.
- Why? I think you are an ambitious man.
- Please don't ask me anymore, because I am enjoying your chat at this moment.

Neither of those peices of dialogue is natural.

 

[emsr2d2]

What about redudancy using Present Continuous? :roll:
Assume the dialogues:

- Anna, where is John?
- He is in room.
- What is he doing?
- He is surfing on forums now.


(telephone chat)

- Well John, are you planning something on next days?
- No, I am not planning anything.
- Why? I think you are an ambitious man.
- Please don't ask me anymore, because I am enjoying your chat at this moment.

Those dialogues are unnatural. We might say:

- Anna, where's John?
- He's in his room.
- What's he doing?
- He's on the internet/He's surfing the net/He's using a forum.

- So John, have you got anything planned for the next few days? or Are you planning to do anything in the next few days?
- No, I haven't got anything planned/No, I'm not planning to do anything.
- Why? I thought you were ambitious. (Note that this is a very unnatural statement in response to the first two lines of the dialogue).
- Please don't keep asking me questions. I'm really enjoying our chat at the moment. (The suggestion here is that the speaker will stop enjoying the conversation if the other person keeps asking questions.)

 

[Yiagos]

Beside of some syntax mistakes, on first dialogue we have redundancy and not on second?
This is my opinion, but I am not sure.

Neither of those peices of dialogue is natural.

Pieces or peices?

 

[emsr2d2]

Beside of some syntax mistakes, on first dialogue we have redundancy and not on second?
This is my opinion, but I am not sure.

Pieces or peices?

It was a simple typo by bhaisahab. It's one that's made accidentally very easily but it's also one of those words which is misspelt by many native speakers because of the common confusion about "ie" or "ei".

 

[Yiagos]

Thanks for your clarify; I was seeking to dictionaries. What about my thoughts above?Am I wrong or not?Because I want to ask one more significant question later, and I prefer to do this here instead of creating new thread.

 

[MikeNewYork]

Thanks for your clarify; I was seeking to dictionaries. What about my thoughts above?Am I wrong or not?Because I want to ask one more significant question later, and I prefer to do this here instead of creating new thread.

Thanks for your clarification. I was looking in dictionaries. You need spaces after both question marks.

 

[Yiagos]

Mike sorry for off topic, but I am surfing with a cellular phone, thus it is not easy to post either to edit. I saw later the spagheti post which seems spagheti programming code.
Could someone reply to my question please?
It is not good to ask for something again and again.
Thanks in advance.

 

[Rover_KE]

Could someone reply to my question please?

Didn't ems cover it in post #10?

 

[MikeNewYork]

Mike sorry for off topic, but I am surfing with a cellular phone, thus it is not easy to post either to edit. I saw later the spagheti post which seems spagheti programming code.
Could someone reply to my question please?
It is not good to ask for something again and again.
Thanks in advance.

I am afraid I don't understand your question.

 

[Yiagos]

Didn't ems cover it in post #10?

Rover I was very tired, that's why I was waiting an answer such as on first dialogue is a redundancy and on second not instead of rewritting the dialogues totally.

I am afraid I don't understand your question.

Mike you should focus on my dialogues and not on syntax mistakes!

Anyway, thanks all Moderators for their effort, but please do not correct anything
You should not disappoint your learners! Sometimes we afraid to ask! Any progress require time!

Let's continue our useful discussion.
From Raymond Murphy's grammar:

We use continuous forms for actions and happenings that have started but not finished (they are eating I it is raining etc.). Some verbs (for example, know and Like) are not normally used in this way. We don't say 'I am knowing' or 'they are liking'; we say 'I know', 'they Like'.
The following verbs are not normally used in the present continuous:
Like, want, need, prefer, know, realise, suppose, mean, understand, believe, belong, fit, contain, consist and seem.

Therefore, is it unnatural the following dialogue? :roll:

(At cafe, John behaves strangely)

- The weather is sunny.
- I do not care...
- John, what's the matter with you?
What are you thinking?
- Anna, I remember now/at the moment our first meeting.

So, my question is:
Can we add an expression such as now, at the moment etc to focus an action at the time of speaking, using any of the listed verbs?

 

[emsr2d2]

Mike, you should focus on my dialogues and not on syntax mistakes!

Anyway, thanks to all the moderators for their effort, but please do not correct anything.
You should not disappoint your learners! Sometimes we are afraid to ask!

If you want a forum where the teachers don't correct your mistakes, you are in the wrong place. That is what we do here. We would be letting learners down if we did not alert them to, and correct, their errors.

 

[Raymott]

Therefore, is it unnatural the following dialogue? :roll:

(At cafe, John behaves strangely)

- The weather is sunny.
- I do not care...
- John, what's the matter with you?
What are you thinking?
- Anna, I remember now/at the moment our first meeting.

So, my question is:
Can we add an expression such as now, at the moment etc to focus an action at the time of speaking, using any of the listed verbs?

No, it's not natural. John is obviously remembering it now, since he's answering Anna's question about what he's thinking. The fact that it's redundant is not why it's not natural, since many redundancies can sound natural. But you've written a dialogue which, to the participants, takes place in their present. You don't have to stress that it's happening 'now' to John and Anna, because when else could it be happening?