A. The Present Continuous is formed from the present tense of the verb be and the present participle ‘-ing’ form of a verb: ‘am/ is/ are + ~ing’
A1. I am doing something = I’m in the middle of doing it: I’ve started doing it and I haven’t finished yet.
A2. The action is not necessarily happening at the time of speaking.
A3. Some friends of mine are building their own house. They hope to finish it next summer.
A4. Verbs are not normally used in the Present continuous: like, love, hate, need, prefer, know, realise, suppose, mean, understand, believe, remember, belong, fit, contain, consist, seem, etc.
B. We use the Present Continuous tense to talk about the present:
B1. that is happening at the moment of speaking.
B2. which is happening before and after a given time.
B3. which we think is temporary.
B4. which is new and contrasts with a previous state.
B5. to show that something is changing, growing or developing: get, change, become, increase, rise, fall, grow, improve, begin, start
B6. for something which happens again and again.
C. We use the Present Continuous tense to talk about the future: for something which has been arranged or planned.
D. We can use the Present Continuous to talk about the past.