2022-01-10

Present Simple and Continuous

Present simple
Use

1) To express habits, general truths, repeated actions or unchanging situations,

emotions and wishes:

 I smoke (habit)
 I work in London (unchanging situation)
 London is a large city (general truth)

2) To give instructions or directions:

 You walk for two hundred meters, then you turn left.

3) To express fixed arrangements, present or future:

 Your exam starts at 09.00

To express future time, after some conjunctions: after, when, before, as soon as, until:

 He'll give it to you when you come next Saturday.

https://www.ef.com/wwen/english-resources/english-grammar/simple-present-tense/
Auxiliaries
Its auxiliaries are do and does

 Where do you live?
 Does Jack play football?
Grammar
Affirmative: The present tense is the base form of the verb, but with the third person
singular (she/he/it), we add an –s.

 I work in London.
Negative: We use do and does to make negatives with the present simple. We
use doesn't for the third person singular (she/he/it) and don't for the others.

 I like tennis but I don’t like football.

Questions: We use do and does to make questions with the present simple. We
use does for the third person singular (she/he/it) and do for the others.

 Where do they work?

We use do and does with question words like where, what and when

 Where does usually Rita get up?

But questions with who often don't use do or does

 Who lives in London.

https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/es/grammar/english-grammar-reference/present-
simple
Time expressions
We use the present continuous with time expressions such as: always, often, generally,
usually, normally, sometimes, never, every day/week/month/year, daily, weekly, monthly,
and annually.

 I drink milk every day.

 He normally cooks paste.
 We sometimes work on Saturdays.
https://sites.google.com/site/rocioengteacher/home/
timeexpressionswiththepresentsimple

Present Continuous
Use
1) Things that are happening now

 She is eating dinner right now and cannot answer the phone.

2) Temporary events

 He’s studying a new language at the moment.

3) A new pattern or habit

 These days, people are writing emails a lot less than they used to a few years ago.
 4) Future plans

 When we arrive at the airport, we are taking a private car direct to the hotel.

https://www.eurocentres.com/blog/when-to-use-the-present-continuous-tense

Grammar
Affirmative: To make affirmative sentences in the present continuous we use the
subject followed by the appropriate form of the auxiliary verb ‘to be’ and the main
verb in the -ing form.

 I’m doing my homework.

Negative: To make negative sentences in the present continuous, we simply change

the auxiliary verb ‘to be’ from positive to negative.

 My sister’s not sitting on the sofa. 

Questions: To make questions in the present continuous you invert the subject and
the auxiliary verb ‘to be.

 Are they riding their bikes?

https://www.wallstreetenglish.com/blog/the-present-continuous-in-english

Time expressions
We use the present continuous with time expressions such as: now, at the moment, at
present, today, tonight, this morning/afternoon/evening, this week/month/year & while.
These time expressions have the following basic positions: At the very end of a sentence,
that is in the complement.

 We are learning English now.
 She's not waiting here at the moment
 At present my father is working abroad.
 Charles is taking three courses this year.

https://www.englishpedia.net/my-grammar/present-continuous-tense/present-
continuous-time-expressions.html