Hello, my dear friends! Welcome to Series English!
My name is Antonia Romaker
and today we are going to talk about the difference between
Present Simple and Present Continuous.
These are very commonly used tenses in the English language.
And a lot of people confuse them.
Today we are going to take a look at a couple of differences,
basic differences and particular cases,
that will help you to define correctly, which tense you are sгpposed to use here and there.
So let's get started, first of all,
Generally Present Simple is used when we talk about
some general information, some facts,
regular or repeated actions. Examples:
I am a teacher. A fact.
The Earth is round. A fact.
I wake up at seven o'clock every day. A fact.
Well actually it's a regular, repeated action - every day.
Do you like sushi?
I'm asking about general information. Do you like it or not?
Cats eat mice. Mice don't eat cats.
So this is Present Simple.
When you create a question or a negative sentenсуб
we are supposed to use an auxiliary verb 'do'
or 'does', when we use 'he', 'she', 'it'.
This is general information, very easy.
Now as for Present Continuous,
here we talk about actions, which are going on right now.
Something is happening right now.
I am speaking.
I am dancing.
'We are the heroes of our time!'
I'm singing and dancing.
So something is going on right now.
I am standing.
I am sitting down and I'm standing up.
So when we talk about actions, which are happening right now or around now,
this is Present Continuous.
So something has started already,
and it hasn't finished yet. It is still in progress.
This is a Present Continuous action.
Now there are also cases when we talk about actions
which are happening around now, which I have already pointed out.
What is that? Let me clarify. An example:
They are building a house outside.
And sometimes you hear all these terrible noises,
and shouting and.. Bam! Bam! Brrr! Shhh! Khhhh!
So they are building a house outside.
I'm not sure whether they are building a house right now.
I can take a look.
Let's take a look outside.
I can't see anybody there.
So... but they are building a new house outside.
So it doesn't mean that they are doing it right now,
but they started already, some time ago,
doesn't matter when exactly,
and they are not finished yet.
So they are doing it, not right now but around now.
So here it doesn't matter when they started doing it,
it doesn't matter how long this process has been going on,
what's important is that around now they are doing it.
'Es war gut, Kate, so gar sehr gut, glaube Ich' - antworte Ich mit leise Stimme.
I am reading a book in German, 'Fifty Shades of Grey'.
So I am reading it right now.
Or I am reading 'Fifty Shades of Grey' in German
but not right now, around now.
So I can call somebody and tell:
Hey, what's up? What are you doing?
Well, nothing, I'm just, well, bored. Don't know what to do.
Well, I'm reading 'Fifty Shades of Grey' in German.
It's OK, yeah.
So during this conversation I said:
I am reading 'Fifty Shade of Grey' in German.
But actually I was not reading at the moment,
I was speaking, calling somebody.
So an action which is happening around now.
I want to move to Germany, so I'm learning German.
So right now I'm not learning German, I'm teaching English.
But around now I'm learning German, because I want to move to Germany.
Now one more thing.
Once again if we compare Present Simple and Present Continuous,
when we talk about Present Simple we mean permanent actions,
something set in stone, some facts, general information.
Or for example if you say: 'I live in Paris',
it means that you have been living there for a long period of time.
Well, one year, five years.
And you live there, it's a fact, nothing special.
You are always in Paris, you live in Paris.
But if you say: 'Well, I keep traveling around,
right now I am living in Paris, in this nice hotel.
I can practically see the Eiffel Tower.
But it you say that 'you are in Paris', it means that
you are in Paris right now.
Since the verb 'to be' is not usually used in Present Continuous.
There's one exception, but we'll talk about it a little bit later.
So now a couple of more examples, connected with
permanent and temporary.
I work a Google. This is a fact.
This is a permanent fact.
Or 'I am working very hard. I'm under a lot of stress!
It means, well, temporary I am working.
Probably a week ago it was not that bad.
And next week it will be better.
But right now or around now I'm under a lot of stress,
I'm working really hard.
I have to pull up trees and work my fingers to the bone!
Now 'I am' and 'I am being'.
So the verb 'be' in Present Simple and Present Continuous.
As I have already noted,
the verb 'to be' is not usually used in Present Continuous
or in any continuous tenses.
However there is an exception. When you say:
'You are arrogant.' It means that you are always arrogant.
You are an arrogant beast.
But if I say: 'You are being arrogant today',
it means that usually you are not.
This is not typical for you.
Usually you are a nice, kind and sweet person.
But today you are being arrogant.
Or 'You are being lazy today. What's up with you?
You are always so energetic and resourceful!
What's wrong? Why are you being so lazy today?'
I really like the example from 'How I met your mother' TV show.
Let's take a look at this short conversation.
Look, don't you think you are being a little impulsive,
marrying a guy you just met a few months ago?
Don't you think it's a little impulsive for you
to proposition an engaged woman you don't even know?
See? We are both impulsive. We are perfect for each other!
So here Ted means that this girl is probably not impulsive usually,
she's a calm sophisticated beautiful woman
who is not impulsive usually,
or aggressive, or passive-aggressive.
But in this particular case, in terms of this decision
that she decided to marry a guy, she met a couple of months ago,
she is being a little impulsive.
This is impulsive, what do you think?
But later on Ted says: 'See? We are both impulsive!
We are perfect for each other.'
So then he says that they are impulsive generally, all the time.
This is their quality.
So this is the difference, when you use the verb 'to be' in Present Simple,
when you state a fact, when you speak about somebody
or about a situation which is OK, which is normal, typical, trivial.
But when you use Present Continuous about a person,
then you say that this person is doing something wrong, unusual.
And there is one more aspect I want to talk about today.
When we say 'I always do' or 'I am always doing'.
What's the difference?
If you say 'I always do', once again this is some general information.
It is typical, it is OK, quite obvious.
I always watch TV in my glasses.
I always brush my teeth before I go to bed.
My sister always smiles when she sees me.
So this is a typical action.
Regular, quite OK, nothing special.
But if you say that you are always doing something,
it means that you are doing it all the time. All the time!
Constantly! And you are not happy about it.
Or you can talk about somebody else,
that this person is doing something all the time.
And it is crazy and you do not like it.
Notice that here we have negative connotation.
So the meaning is negative.
It is bad, you do not like it.
Where are my glasses. I don't see them. Where are they?
Huh! Here they are!
I'm always losing things!
I'm always losing my keys and my glasses and
Everything! This is crazy! I don't like it.
Antonio! You are always listening to music in your headphones!
You are gonna get deaf!
What?
My husband is always complaining to my parents about me!
I don't like it! He will pay for that!
I am smoking.
I'm smoking a mascara. I'm that crazy.
He is always smoking.
I don't like smoking.
So remember that here you have a negative attitude.
You hate it! You can't stand it! It is crazy!
Then you use the construction 'to be always doing'.
OK, so that's it for today.
Today we talked about the difference between Present Continuous and Present Simple.
There are a couple of aspects more,
for example there are verbs which are not used in Present Continuous.
There are verbs which change their meaning dramatically,
if you use them in Present Simple or Present Continuous.
And a couple of things more.
We'll continue talking about the difference between Present Simple and Present Continuous
in one more class, there will be one more, just one.
And we'll master this topic.
We'll master English tenses.
But that's it, I hope that you liked this video
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if you want to continue studying English with me.
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