In the following sentence "He is smiling at us.", is the verb SMILING an adjective with IS being a linking verb or is the main verb SMILING a present continuous making it an intransitive verb?

In the sentence 'He is smiling at me', 'smiling' is a main verb used in present continuous tense because the speaker is reporting an incomplete action here. At the time of reporting the person had not stopped smiling or he was still in the middle of smiling.

Here's a quick lesson on the present continuous tense and on the other tenses:


Simple past tense

Past progressive tense

Past perfect tense

Past perfect progressive tense


Simple present tense

Present progressive tense

Present perfect tense

Present perfect progressive tense



Simple future tense

Future progressive tense

Future perfect tense

Future perfect progressive tense