Other possible uses of the present continuous tense

Rule 1: With a pint in time to indicate an action which begins before this point and probably continuous after it:

• At six I am bathing the baby. (I start bathing him before six.)
• Similarly with a verb in the simple present:

They are flying over the desert when one of the engines fails.

The present continuous is rarely used in this way except in descriptions of daily routing and in dramatic narrative, but the past continuous is often combined with a point in time or a verb in the simple past.

Rule 2: With always:

• He is always losing his keys. 

For a frequently repeated action, usually when the frequency annoys the speaker of seems unreasonable to him: Tom is always  going away for weekends (present continuous) would imply that he goes away very often, probably too often in the speaker’s opinion. But it does not necessarily mean that he goes away every weekend. It is not a literal statement. Compare with always + simple present:

• Tom always goes away at weekends

• Tom goes away every weekend. (a literal statement)

I/we + always + continuous tense is also possible here. The repeated action is then often accidental:

• I’m always making that mistake. 
• For an action which appears to be continuous:
• He’s always working – He works the whole time.

This sort of action quite often annoys the speaker but doesn’t necessarily do so: He’s always reading could imply that he spends too much time reading, but could also be said in a tone of approval.

The first person could be used here too. The action then, like the other actions here in 2, is usually deliberate.

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