Plans and arrangements

part of the rule, not part of an exception.

What do I mean here? We use the present continuous when we see an event as being temporary. We see it as having a start and an end, and we expect this process or time between beginning and end to be temporary. ie this time will end!

eg “I’m reading a book by Thomas Swamp at the moment.”

Here the person may have started the book last week, and is now in the process of reading it, and expects to finish it next week. Or next month. All up, this is an action in progress.

Likewise, when we make our plans, we see this as an action in progress. How? Maybe last night I wrote in my diary “film – Sunday 7.30”. So this was the beginning of this temporary period.

Now imagine my friend Angelina calls me up and asks:

“What are you doing on Sunday?”

I’ll reply: “I’m seeing a film.”

I see this whole process as beginning when I wrote down in my diary last night “film – Sunday” and I see this as ending when the film finishes.

So whether we use present continuous to refer to what we’re doing now or ‘for the future’, it’s the same rule.