The Present Continuous Tense

John is in his car. He is in his way to work. He is driving to work It means he is driving now: “at the time of speaking” It is the present continuous tense.

A.    The form of the present continuous tense

The verb to be (is, am, are)

verb + ing

• The affirmative forms of the present continuous tense

I	am	eating
	’m
You, we, they	are
	’re
He, she, it	is
	's

•   The interrogative forms of the present continuous tense

Am	I	eating?
Are	you, we, they
Is	he, she, it

• The negative forms of the present continuous tense

I	am not	eating
	’m not
You, we, they	are not
	aren't
He, she, it	is not
	isn't

B.     The use of the present continuous tense

• The present continuous is used to talk about actions happening at the time of speaking. 

Example: 
Where is Mary? She is having a bath. (Not she has a bath)

• The present continuous can also be used when an action has started but hasn’t finished yet. 

Example: 
I am reading a book; it’s a nice book. (It means = I am not necessarily reading it; I started reading it but I haven’t finished it yet

• Special verbs

There are verbs which are normally not used in the present continuous.

Examples: Be, believe, belong, hate, hear, like, love, mean, prefer, remain, realize, see, seem, smell, think, understand, want, wish.

It's not correct to say        : He is wanting to buy a new car.
You must say                    : He wants to buy a new car.