Present Progressive- Small Talk

Present Continuous small talk

Present Continuous with present and future meanings review

Ask and answer realistic questions from below, thinking about the present weather, day of the week etc to choose the best questions to ask in this situation.

 

Probably realistic questions

• Are you doing anything (nice/ special) this weekend?
• Are you enjoying the (cooler) weather/ the summer/ the … league/ your new job/ the cherry blossom/…?
• Are you feeling better?/ How are you feeling?/ Are you recovering from your cold/ from your flu/ from…?
• Are you following the baseball/ The Crown/…?
• Are you going anywhere this weekend?
• Are you (still) working on…?
• Do you have any plans for the next holiday?
• Do you have any plans for this evening?
• Do you have any plans for this weekend?
• How are your family?/ How is your family?
• How’s business?
• How’s it going?/ How are you doing?
• How’s the weather outside now?
• How’s work?
• How’s your (baseball/ football/…) team doing?
• How’s your cold/ flu/ leg/ back/ hangover/…?
• How’s your project going?/ How’s… going?/ How are you getting on with…?
• I really like that tie/ shirt/… (that you are wearing). Wh…?
• Is it still raining/ snowing/…?
• It’s really noisy outside today, isn’t it? (Do you know what’s going on?)
• What are you working on at the moment?
• What’s (name) doing?

Do the same with the roleplay questions below, with the person answering pretending to be a foreign visitor.

 

Questions for foreign visitors

• Are you enjoying your trip?
• Are you having a good time (here) (in Japan/ in Tokyo/ in…)?
• Where are you staying?/ Are you staying near here?
• (How) are you coping with the heat/ the crowds/ the traffic/ the taxis/ the subway/ travelling around/ the beggars/…?
• Do you have (m)any more meetings today?
• When are you flying back (to New York/ to…)?

Ask about any questions above which you don’t understand and/ or can’t answer.

 

Present Continuous grammar presentation

Label the questions above with “PR” for “present” or “F” for “future”? They should be clearly one or the other (not both).

What’s the differences between these pairs of questions? (Some have the same meaning but different levels of formality/ politeness/ friendliness).

• Are you enjoying the baseball?/ Do you enjoy baseball?
• How’s it going?/ How are you?
• How are you doing?/ How are you?
• How are you doing?/ How do you do?
• Is it (still) snowing?/ Does it (ever) snow?
• What are you working on (at the moment)?/ What (exactly) do you do?
• Are you doing anything (nice/ special) this weekend?/ Will you do anything (nice/ special) this weekend?
• Where are you staying?/ Where do you live?
• How’s work?/ How’s business?

Of the last two questions, which is about business results (sales, etc), like things on a line graph? Which is about your (personal) busyness?

Which tenses might you use to describe a line graph such as business results?

Would Present Continuous be used to talk about present line graph data or about future line graph data?