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23
Is he (she, it) not speaking?
Are we not speaking?
Are you not speaking?
Are they not speaking?
Isn’t he (she, it) speaking?
Aren’t we speaking?
Aren’t you speaking?
Aren’t they speaking?
In spoken English contractions are commonly used (I’m, he’s, it’s, we’re, etc.).
A reduced negative for the first person singular is I’m not, but is replaced by aren’t in the negative -
interrogative.
§ 22. The present continuous is used with all actional and some statal verbs (with the reservations
destribed below):
1. To denote continuous actions going on at the moment of speaking.
Look, how happily they are playing!
Don’t bother him, he’s working.
Listen! The telephone is ringing. Go and answer it.
- Can I see Mary? - You must wait a little while, she is having breakfast.
The present indefinite, not the present continuous, is used to denote actions which though going on at the
moment of speaking, are important as simple facts, rather than as actions in progress.
Why don’t you answer?
Why don’t you write? Where is your pen?
Stop talking! Why don’t you listen?
If two simultaneous actions are in progress at the moment of speaking, three variants are
possible:
a) one action is expressed by the verb in the present indefinite, the other - by the present continuous:
Do you hear what I am saying!
b) both the actions are expressed by verbs in the present continuous:
Are you listening to what I am saying?
At home he is always sleeping while I am doing chores.
c) both the actions are expressed by verbs in the present indefinite:
Several students watch carefully while he writes it on the board.
The use of the present indefinite instead of the present continuous is due to the semantic peculiarities of the
verb.
The present continuous is not generally used with some verbs - the verbs of sense perception, of mental or
emotional state and with relational verbs. Still exceptions may occur with these verbs too.
With the verbs of sense perception the use of the tense form is closely connected with what kind of
perception is meant - voluntary (deliberate) or involuntary. In case these verbs denote a voluntary action: to
listen (слушать), to look (смотреть) or if they may denote both an involuntary and a voluntary action, such as:
to feel (ощупывать), to smell (нюхать), to taste (пробовать на вкус), they can occur in continuous forms.
Voluntary actions
Involuntary actions
Why are you not listening?
Say it again, I don’t hear you.