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Present Simple and Present Continuous

Presentation / Objective

In this lesson, you will reinforce and practice the present simple and present progressive to give, ask and correct information about habits and activities at the moment of speaking. This set of activities is designed to help and guide you and improve your English skills.

Objective

At the end of this topic you will:
Use simple present and present continuous in affirmative, negative, interrogative sentences to exchange information about daily, sport and leisure activities to express habitual and progressive actions.

Content

Present simple

This tense is to express your everyday activities at home, school, with friends etc.; in other words they are habitual actions. If you remember the verbs can change in sentences with affirmative form. Some phrases that indicate present tense are: in the morning, in the afternoon, every day, on weekdays, at the weekends etc.

Exercise 1.

Daily routine

Have you ever thought about your routine? Which activities do you usually do?
Firstly, in this exercise you have to complete the following sentences with the activities that the people do. Be careful because it is very important to identify who the real subject is.

Exercise 2.

Interviewing a friend

In this exercise, you have the answers of an interview, but the questions are missing so you need to complete the interview by writing the questions considering your best friend and her family routines.
Be careful!! In habitual routines, you need auxiliaries to write the questions and negative sentences as well. To complete the questions correctly, you need to pay attention to the underlined information.

Exercise 3.

Sister's homework

You finish the interview and you usually check your sister´s homework because that is part of your habitual routines on weekdays. She has some sentences in her notebook.
Pay attention!! Remember that the order of the words depends on whether if the sentences are affirmative, negative and interrogative. The verbs needs to correspond to the subject.
Decide if the following statements are correct or incorrect by choosing the appropriate option. You can know your score at the end of the exercise.

Present Continuous or Progressive

In this tense, you can talk about situations, events and activities that are happening in the moment you are speaking or around that one. Some common or frequent phrases that indicate this tense are: now, right now, at the moment, in this moment, this week, this month, this day, etc. They are an excellent reference to identify the tense that you need to practice and use.

Exercise 4.

Let's practice

In the present progressive or continuous you need to include the main verb in present participle or “ing”. There are some rules you have to follow.

Exercise 5.

Writing present progressive

It is time to use some verbs in present progressive. Choose the verbs of the previous exercise to complete the sentences. Remember to include the correct verb to be.

Exercise 6.

A conversation

Now you are going to complete questions and answers in the following conversation. Observe the underlined words or phrases to help you.

Reading

Activity 1.

My lifestyle

As you reviewed, the present simple is used to express your everyday activities or your habitual actions.

In this activity, you will read the text “My lifestyle” in order to answer some questions.

Sometimes you have bad habits that can cause unwanted effects. One of them could be “overweight”… But do not worry!!

Here you can read some advice to avoid gaining extra kilos.

My lifestyle

I am part of an excellent program which helps me to lose weight. My lifestyle is changing a lot because I cannot have loads of carbohydrates and fast food, this is one of the most important advice that the dietician tells me every week. I love fast food, although it is not as healthy as fruit or vegetables.

Orange juice

Skeeeze. (2015). Cereal. Retrieved from: https://pixabay.com/en/cereal-breakfast-oats-apple-805436/

Firstly, eating “high-calorie food” has negative consequences. When a person consumes more food than necessary, he or she can get tired easily. One example is at the moment you try to go upstairs; that happened to me and I felt dizzy so I started to change my eating habits. It is important to know what type of meat you can eat and the portion that your body needs every day. I can have two small pieces of red or white meat twice a week.
Secondly, nowadays I am doing sports such as basketball and baseball. This month I am drinking a special beverage; it is made of beet, lemon juice and boiled water. It is not the best flavor; however, I feel much better after I drink all the mixture of ingredients. In the mornings, I go to the park to do exercise from six to eight a.m. Right now I am having a delicious green salad because I am in the school and it is lunch time.
Finally, my new way of eating and enjoying meals is very important in my life. I have been in different healthy programs but now I am thinking that this is not as bad as the other ones. Definitely I am in the best one. I hope you join us as soon as possible. We are waiting for you.

orange juice

Stevebp. (2016). Orange juice. Retrieved from: https://pixabay.com/en/fresh-orange-juice-squeezed-1614822/

Reading

Activity 2.

Let's learn more vocabulary

Vocabulary is important and you can learn it by reading. Read the text again, because you have to find the word to some definitions, so get ready.

Listening

Activity 3

Talking about my activities

Daily life activities and those at the moment are important for everybody so you are going to listen someone who is sharing what he does and is doing. With this activity, you are going to improve your listening skills by paying attention to the key words that you can read in these sentences.

Basketball

NA. (016). Basketball. Retrieved from: https://pixabay.com/photo-1663246/

Listen to the conversation by clicking here:

Listening

Activity 4

Getting the exact words

You understood the whole idea previously, now you are going to write specific information of the recordings to identify the missing words and write them correctly.

Listen to the audio by clicking here:

Writing

Activity 5

A letter

You practiced present simple and present continuous in their different forms. It is your turn to write your own composition.

You are working for an international company. You are in charge of writing a letter to your boss about the position of three different people considering what they normally do and explaining the activities that they are doing in this day. You letter has to have between 70 and 90 words. Use the format below.

letter

Jarmoluk. (2014). Letter. Retrieved from: https://pixabay.com/photo-436501/

Letter format

Please, make sure it has the characteristics contained in the rubric and try to use different verbs to evaluate yourself after you finish.

Speaking

Activity 6

My routine and activities during this week

You wrote a letter and you did it very well. Now you need to imagine that you are in an interview. Read the questions then record your answers following the order how they are in the list. Listen to the example and check the rubric before you record your audio.



Firstly, what is your name and what do you do in the morning?
Secondly, this week you are taking special classes; what are you studying?
Then you have free time in the afternoon, where do you go and activities you do?
Thirdly, you work in an office; it is a part time job. What things do you commonly do there?
Finally, these days your parents are not at home so you are writing the things that you need and what you are buying for dinner.


Microphone

The Angru Teddy. (2014). Microphone. Retrieved from: https://pixabay.com/photo-338481/


Please before you record your description, make sure it has the characteristics contained in the rubric.

Self-assessment

Exercise 1

Practice the topic

You practiced your English skills, now it is the right moment to verify what you learnt during this lesson.

Read carefully the sentences to decide if they are structured correctly.

References

Basic references

  • Lindsay Clandfield & Kate Pickering. (2015). Global Elementary Coursebook. Thailand: Macmillan.
  • Rob Metcalf. (2015). Global Elementary Workbook. Thailand: Macmillan.

Complementary reference

  • Jack C. Richards. (2005) Full Contact Interchange Student’s Book. Hong Kong, China: Cambridge University Press.