The pattern

"I'm working on" plus a thing means you are in the middle of it and it is not done. The thing can be a task (a report, the garden, dinner), a skill (my accent, my patience) or a problem (the bug, the leak). It is the most common answer to "How's the project?" in offices everywhere, because it says "progress" without promising a date.

Use it about yourself and it sounds steady. Use it about a weakness and it sounds mature: "I'm working on it" is how adults admit a fault without a speech.

Say it out loud

Tap a sentence to hear it. Say it after the voice.

  1. A verb can follow too, in the -ing form: working on getting, working on being.

Check yourself

1"I'm working on the report" tells the listener that the report is...
2Which one is a natural way to admit a weakness?
3What form does a verb take after "working on"?

Practice · 3 min

Say what is in progress. Prompt on the left, one natural sentence on the right.

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5

Say it today

Use it once in a real conversation before tomorrow. Out loud counts, even to yourself.