-ing form

The -ing form is a verb with -ing at the end: work – working, play – playing. It doesn't change for the person or the time. The words before it do that.

Spelling

• Most verbs just add -ing: work – working, read – reading, play – playing.
• A verb ending in -e loses the e: make – making, write – writing, come – coming. But be – being, see – seeing.
• A short verb ending in one vowel and one consonant doubles the consonant: run – running, sit – sitting, stop – stopping, swim – swimming. Never with w, x or y: snow – snowing, fix – fixing.
• -ie becomes -y: lie – lying, die – dying, tie – tying.
• In longer verbs, the last letter doubles only when the end of the word is stressed: begin – beginning, but visit – visiting, open – opening.
• British English doubles a final l: travel – travelling. American English doesn't: traveling.

After be: what is happening

With am, is, are, was or were, the -ing form says that an action is or was in progress.

After like, love, hate and enjoy

As the name of an activity

An -ing form can be the name of an activity, like a noun. It can start a sentence, and it comes after words like in, at, about, for, before and after.

-ing and -ed adjectives

Some -ing words describe things: interesting, boring, exciting. They say what something is like. The -ed word says how a person feels.

Common mistakes

• × writeing → writing
• × runing → running
• × lieing → lying
• × I like swim. → I like swimming.
• × I'm boring. (when you mean how you feel) → I'm bored.