I am learning English for travel

Aim of this lesson: Revise and practice the present continuous (progressive) and learn vocabulary related to sports and hobbies.

Dialogue

Richard is travelling to school with his son Michael.

(listen)

Richard	Look at the children, Michael. What are they doing?
Michael	They're playing football, Daddy. The boys are kicking the ball and the girls are watching them play.
Richard	And what about the older boys over there? What are they doing?
Michael	They're walking the dog and talking on their mobile phones. Dad, can I have a mobile phone?
Richard	Er, ask your mother, Michael. And what is that old lady doing?
Michael	She's waiting for a bus.
Richard	And what are we doing?
Michael	We're driving to school.

Grammar Focus - Present Continuous

The Present Continuous is commonly used to talk about current present actions - things happening at this moment.

English for B2 students Grammar • Unit 2 Present Continuous
Situation	Form	Example
+ POSITIVE	subject + be + verb + ing	I am learning English at the moment
- NEGATIVE	subject + be + not + verb + ing	I'm not eating a banana because I'm learning English
? QUESTION	be + subject + verb + ing ?	Are you eating a banana or learning English?
present continuous describes actions happening at the moment. Use present simple to describe actions which are always true, e.g. NOT ~~"I am living in London"~~ but "I live in London."
present continuous can also be used to talk about arrangements in the future - "I am meeting John at 10pm on Friday."
present continuous is only used with verbs which describe an action. Use the present simple with verbs which describe states, e.g. NOT ~~"I am being happy"~~ but "I am happy" because "to be" describes a state not an action.

Vocabulary - Sports & Hobbies

When we want to talk about doing a hobby we often have a choice of verbs we can use. This table shows the appropriate verb to use with different sports. Basically we use play with ball sports, do with exercises and martial arts (Asian sports like judo and karate) and go with sports that end with ing like swimming.

English for B2 students Vocabulary • Unit 2 Sports Verbs
Verb	Sports	Example
play	football, tennis, rugby, hockey, baseball, badminton	Let's play football
do	exercise, yoga, aerobics, judo, karate	Have you ever done yoga?
go	skiing, bungee-jumping, parachuting, kayaking, fishing	Shall we go skiing on the weekend?

Speaking about Hobbies

Work with a partner, if you can, and ask/answer these questions. If you're on your own you should think about these questions and write your answers instead.

What sports and activities do you do regularly? How often do you practice?
What sport are you playing or watching next week?
How do you feel when you are playing this sport?
What sports do you hate playing or watching?
Do you have a favourite football team? Have you ever seen them play?

Exercises

Try these questions to see if you can use present continuous and present simple correctly. The answers can be found here.

Complete the following sentences using the present simple or present continuous:

Look at that bad man! He ________ (smoke) a cigarette on the bus.
I _________ (study) for my exam at the moment.
Do you have any children? Yes, I __________ (have) two sons.
What are you doing tomorrow evening? I _________ (meet) my wife for dinner.
Are you busy? Yes, I ________ (take) a shower.

Grammar Reference

For further information about present continuous and present simple see Tenses and Forms.

Vocabulary Reference

For an excellent list of sports vocabulary in English complete with pictures see Learning with Pictures - Sports on the Learning English Online website.

English for B2 students

• Aims • Unit 1 • Unit 2 • Unit 3 • Unit 4 • Unit 5 • Unit 6 • Test 1

• Unit 7 • Unit 8 • Unit 9 • Unit 10 • Unit 11 • Unit 12 • Test 2