When and why do we use this tense?
“This tense is used to explain continuous actions which are happening at the point when someone is speaking.

Structure:

“Subject + auxiliary verb (conjugated present tense of “to be”) + gerund

“As you can see, the structure is relatively simple.

Examples:

“They are playing football

“He is watching television

“We are relaxing by the beach

“It must also be noted that everything we say in affirmative can also be mentioned in negative form. To create the negative, all we do is add the word “not” after the auxiliary verb.

Examples:

“They are not playing football

“He is not watching television

“We are not relaxing by the beach

Can we use the present continuous in another context?
“As mentioned above the main use of the present continuous is for a continuing action in the present, however it can also be used to express an action which is going to take place in the near future. Do note however, that the auxiliary verb “will” is still the clear auxiliary for the future tense.

Examples:

“They are going to Canada tomorrow

“He is playing football on Saturday

“We are relaxing by the beach this afternoon

What about questions?
“In terms of creating questions in the present continuous, it’s very easy to master. Like other tenses, all we have to do is make an inversion of the subject and the auxiliary and voilà, we have the question form.

Examples:

“They are playing football = Are they playing football?

“He is watching television = Is he watching television?

“We are relaxing by the beach = Are we relaxing by the beach?

What is most important thing?
“One of the main points to remember is that we cannot use this tense to describe our general daily lives- that must be done with the present simple. This is only for continuous actions in the present and also to describe near future actions.