A single word is a simple picture. A phrase is an unfinished picture. A sentence is a complete picture giving the reader a clear thought and some feeling conveyed through words. Read the following words, phrases and sentences given.

Box

The box

on the box

In the box

The cat is in the box.

There is a cobra in the box.

Whenever you want to make a sentence, create a complete picture in your mind using words, and phrases and idiomatic expressions. In the last sentence given above an idiomatic expression has been used. When you want to introduce an unknown person, an animal or a thing, begin your sentence with ‘There is a/an ..’. If the noun is in the plural form, use ‘There are ….’. Now, read the world using this expression and extend your sentence adding prepositional phrases as given above. This should be the beginning of your English sentence construction.

The next step is easier than you think it is. Learn as many action words as possible by observing the actions of people and animals. Man – sitting, standing, walking, running, jogging, marching, squatting, leaning, resting, panting, coughing, sneezing, crying, going, coming, leaving, arriving, returning, limping, loitering,  smiling, laughing, bathing, swimming etc. Dog – barking, growling, howling, whining, yelping, whimpering, lying, sleeping etc. All these action words are called intransitive verbs in English grammar because they can give complete pictures by themselves.

Now, continue your sentence construction process with the following patterns

There is a girl at the bus stop. She is smiling.

There is a dog near the bus stop. It is sleeping.

By this way you simply understand what Present Continuous Tense is. Continue means going on. Present Continuous means the action we see is going on and we are not interested about the beginning or the end of the action but only interested about what is happening at this present moment. Here you need to learn the following Pronouns in making these sentences.

   Third Person Singular           Third Person Plural

Man, boy, child etc. - He      Men, boys, children etc.  – They
Woman, girl etc.  - She        Women, girls etc.  – They
Dog, cat, bird etc.  - It      Dogs, cats, birds etc.  - They
Tree, flower etc.  - It        Trees, flowers etc.  – They

Man and woman, girls and boys etc. – They

Now read whatever you see around you using the two sentence patterns given above as the first step of English sentence construction.