Here is a song about what is happening now. A woman sits in a café and tells us everything she sees.
Learn from Songs · Unit 1: Present time · A2–B1
Tom’s Diner
A song that is like a camera: the present continuous for describing what is happening now (a man is pouring coffee, it’s raining), the present simple and continuous together in a story, and the vocabulary of a city morning, with Philo, who loves watching people.
SOPHIA
PHILO
Like me at the harbour. I can watch people for hours.
MARCOS
That’s not a song. That’s just looking.
SOPHIA
Exactly, Marcos. And she sings it with no instruments at all.
Before you listen: the song
New York, 1981
Suzanne Vega wrote “Tom’s Diner” in 1981, about a real café in New York, Tom’s Restaurant, near Columbia University. Later, it became famous as the café in the TV comedy Seinfeld.
The song has no music: just Vega’s voice, singing a cappella. In 1990, two English producers added a dance beat to it without asking her, and it became a hit all over the world.
The song is like a camera. The singer is sitting in the diner one rainy morning, and she describes what is happening: a man is pouring coffee, a woman outside is looking in through the window, people are coming in from the rain. She reads the newspaper, she finishes her coffee, and she goes to catch her train.
A fun fact: engineers used this song to test the first MP3 files, because a voice with no music is very hard to compress well. Some people call Suzanne Vega “the mother of the MP3”.
Nothing special happens. And that is what makes it beautiful.
Listen: what is happening?
DEMETRIA
Listen once. Close your eyes. What can you “see”? Who is in the diner? What is the weather like?
SOPHIA
Then listen again for the verbs. Many end in -ing. Answer Section A.
☕ Listen to the song: “Tom’s Diner” (Suzanne Vega, 1981 / 1987).Watch the official video →
📜 Read the words while you listen: “Tom’s Diner”, Suzanne Vega.Read the lyrics →
The present continuous: now
PHILO
A man is pouring coffee. It is raining. A woman is looking in.
SOPHIA
am / is / are + -ing for actions in progress now, around us. Negative: isn’t / aren’t + -ing. Question: Is it raining? What are you doing?
Simple and continuous together
MARCOS
But she also says she reads the paper and finishes her coffee. Why not -ing?
SOPHIA
Good, Marcos. In a story told in the present, the continuous paints the background (it’s raining, people are talking), and the simple moves the story forward, one action after another (she opens the paper, she finishes her coffee, she leaves). Sports commentators do the same!
Sophia’s comparison: a picture in words
SOPHIA
Homer does this too. When Hephaestus makes the shield of Achilles, Homer describes the pictures on it as if they are moving: people are dancing, oxen are ploughing, a judge is listening.
DEMETRIA
So Tom’s Diner is a shield of Achilles, but with coffee!
Sophia’s summary
| Words and forms | Use | Example |
|---|---|---|
| am / is / are + -ing | actions happening now | A man is pouring coffee. |
| isn’t / aren’t + -ing; Is…? / What are…? | negatives and questions | Is it still raining? |
| -ing spelling | pour → pouring, sit → sitting, come → coming | She is sitting by the window. |
| continuous = background, simple = events | telling a story in the present | It’s raining. She opens the paper. |
| diner, counter, menu, newspaper, umbrella | a city café | She sits at the counter. |
Practice
Listen to the song for Section A, then do the rest. Press “Check my answers” at the end. You can try again as many times as you like.
A · Listen: the song
Listen to the song and choose the best answer.
1. Where is the singer?
2. What is the weather like?
3. What is special about the music?
4. What does she read?
5. What is the woman outside doing?
6. At the end, where does she go?
B · Grammar and vocabulary
Write the missing word or words.
7. It raining. (present continuous)
8. The man pouring coffee.
9. Spelling: sit →
10. What you doing?
11. They talking. (negative)
12. She finishes her coffee and to the station. (go, present simple)
C · Right or wrong?
Is the sentence correct English?
13. “Look! It rains.” (now)
14. “She is sitting at the counter.”
15. “What are you do?”
16. “Every morning she drinks coffee in the diner.”
Talk and write
Discussion and writing
Look out of the window. Describe what you can see right now, in five present continuous sentences.
Discuss. 1. Why do you think Vega sang with no music? 2. Do you like watching people? Where? 3. Is it rude to watch strangers?
Write (80–120 words). My café. You are sitting in a café or on a bench. Describe what is happening around you, like the song: the background in the present continuous, and your actions in the present simple.
Now play the gamebook: a morning at the window, with Philo.Play the gamebook →