Present Simple versus Present Continuous Tense
English grammar lesson
I speak English.
I am speaking English.
What is the difference?
I speak English
is in the present simple tense.
I am speaking English
is in the present continuous tense.
When do we use the present simple and when do we use the present continuous?
Let's look at each one.
The present simple tense.
We use the present simple tense
for facts or things that are always true or generally true.
Whales live in the ocean.
This is a fact. This is always true.
A dog has four legs.
This is generally true.
Unfortunately some dogs have three legs or less
but in general it is true.
It rains a lot in winter.
Yes, this is generally true.
Water boils at 100 degrees Celsius.
This is a fact, just like the fact that water
freezes at zero degrees Celsius.
The present simple tense is also used for regular habits or repeated actions.
These are often daily routines and they happen...
always, often, generally, every week, etc.
I brush my teeth three times a day.
I read in bed every night.
She goes to the gym after work.
He walks to school every day.
Common time expressions used with the present simple tense are:
always, often, generally, normally, sometimes, never
every day, every week, every year
Note that the time word is in the singular form
DAY not DAYS
once a day, twice a week, three times a month,
then the rest are four times, five times, etc.
in the morning, in the afternoon, at night
We don't say "in the night"
I recommend seeing our video about prepositions of time AT, ON, and IN.
on Mondays, on Fridays
When the day is in plural, it refers to all Mondays, all Fridays.
Present continuous tense.
We use the present continuous tense
for an action happening right now at the moment of speaking.
When somebody is doing something right now
or something is happening right now.
I am teaching an English lesson.
Yes, that is what's happening right now.
You are watching a video.
Yes, that is what you are doing right now.
Steve is washing his hair.
She is taking her dog for a walk.
You can see that these actions are happening right now
and they are temporary actions, normally for a short period of time.
The present continuous is also used
to talk about something that is happening
around the time of speaking
but, not necessarily at that exact moment.
This action is in progress and hasn't finished.
I am reading a great book.
It doesn't necessarily mean
that I'm reading a book right at this moment.
It refers to this moment of my life.
I've started reading this book and I haven't finished it yet.
They are staying at a local hotel because the roof of their house was damaged during the storm.
It doesn't necessarily mean that they are at the hotel right at this moment.
Maybe they are at work right now or somewhere else.
This situation is temporary.
Jack is learning Italian.
It doesn't necessarily mean he is
learning the language right now at a desk with all of his language books.
It refers to this moment of his life.
Common time expressions used with the present continuous are
now, right now, at the moment, still.
Now let's compare the two tenses together.
Here are the sentences from the beginning of this lesson.
I speak English.
I am speaking English.
We say I speak English because it is a fact.
I generally speak English so we use the present simple tense.
We say I am speaking English
because it refers to what I am doing now.
It is a temporary action
because in a moment I might start speaking in Spanish.
So we use the present continuous.
Let's compare more sentences.
I live in England.
We use the present simple for things that don't change for a long time.
I plan to live in England for a long time
and I don't plan to change soon.
It is more or less permanent.
But if I say, I am living in London at the moment
I use the present continuous because this situation is temporary.
Next month I plan to live in a different city.
Another example
It rains a lot in winter.
We use the present simple because this is a fact or is generally true.
It is raining right now.
We use the present continuous
because we are talking about an action that is happening right now,
it is in progress.
It will not continue forever, it is temporary.
Tomorrow it might be sunny.
Look at this cartoon. What is he doing?
He is biting his nails because he is nervous.
This sentence shows the action is happening now,
he is biting his nails right now.
Does he always do this when he is nervous?
Yes, he always bites his nails when he's nervous.
The second sentence uses the present simple
because it is talking about his habit,
something that he does when he is nervous.
Notice how we use the present simple tense with the adverb of frequency always.
Let's compare the present simple and present continuous
in affirmative sentences, negative sentences and in questions.
Here are two affirmative sentences.
I eat cereal every day.
This is my habit, my routine.
I'm eating cereal right now.
This is an action happening now.
Let's look at the negative form.
I do not eat cereal every day.
No, sometimes I have pancakes for breakfast... YUM!
I am not eating cereal right now.
No, I am eating broccoli.
We use DO NOT or DOES NOT to make negative sentences in the present simple.
Remember we can use the contractions DON'T and DOESN'T.
We add NOT between TO BE and the VERB to make negative sentences in the present continuous
And making questions
Do you eat cereal every day?
Is this your habit or routine?
Are you eating cereal right now?
Is this what you're doing right now?
We use DO or DOES to make questions in the present simple tense.
We change the order of the subject
or subject pronoun, and the conjugation of the verb TO BE
when making questions in the present continuous tense.
Questions... same verbs, different meanings.
Questions can have the same verb
but its meaning changes depending on if the question is in the present simple
or present continuous.
For example: What do you do?
This means... What is your job?
But when I say... What are you doing?
This means what action or what thing are you doing right now?
Another example
What do you read?
This means... What type of books do you like to read?
What are you reading?
This means...
What is the name of the book you're reading right now?
I hope you found this grammar lesson about the present simple versus present continuous useful.
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