PastAndPresent

Present continious

Sarah is in her car. She is in her way to work.

I am doing something = I started doing it and haven't finished yet. I'm in the middle of doing it.

Sometimes the action ia not happening at the time of speaking

You can use the present continious with

• today
• this week
• this year, etc.

We use present continious when we talk about changes happening around now, espesially with:

• getting
• becomming
• changing
• starting
• beginning
• growing
• improving
• increasing
• rising
• falling

Present Simple

Alex is a bus driver but now he is in bed asleep. He is not driving a bus right now but

We use the present simple to talk about things in general. We use it to say that something happens all the time or repeatedly, or that something os true in general.

We use do/does to make negative sentences and questions.

negative sentences

question

Sometimes do is also the main verb.

We use present simple to say how often we do things

Always, usually, never etc. go before the verb, not after it.

Sometimes we do things by saying something

Present Continious and Present Simple

We use the continious for things happening at or around the time of speaking. The action is not complete.

We use the simple for things in general or things that happen repeatedly

We use the continious for temporary situations (things that go on for a short time around now).

We use the simple for permanent situations (things that go on for a long time)

I always do something = I do it every time

I am always doing something = I do it too often or more often than normal.

The following verbs are not normally used in the present continuous :

• like,
• love,
• hate,
• want,
• need,
• prefer,
• know,,
• realize,
• suppose,
• mean,
• understand,
• believe,
• remember,
• belong,
• fit,
• contain,
• consist,
• seem.

When think means "believe" or "have an opinion", we do not use continuous:

When think means "consider", the continious is possible:

We normaly use present simple with

• see
• hear
• smell
• taste

We also use these words with can

You can use simple or continious to say how somebody looks or feels now.

or

But

We use am/is/are + being to say how a person is behaving (something a person can control).

But