Present Simple vs Present Continuous
- The Present Continous is mainly used for actions and happenings.
- Its not usually used for states.
- The present is normally used to talk about thoughts,feeling or states.
- We can also use present simple for facts.
When do we use the the present simple?
This is the tense we use when we are talking about everyday things and habitual actions in general in the present.
Examples:
- I live in Spain.
- He always goes to the cinema.
- They never do their homework.
What about the present continuous?
In English, we do not tend to use the present continuous to describe general things in English but more to describe things that we are doing in a specific moment as the action is an ongoing action.
Examples:
- I’m watching television (at this moment).
- My friends are playing XBOX (at this moment).
- They are travelling to Canada (at this moment they are on their way there)
Different Rules
Present Continous
Present Simple
- Most verbs you have to add - INg
- Most verbs ended with -y, add -ing
- Verbs that ended with -e, drop the -e and add -ing
- Verbs that ended with -ee, add -ing
- Verbs ended with a consonant preceded by a vowel, double the consonant and add -ing
- To make continuous verbs add -ing to the base verb
- When the verb ends with a silent e, drop the e and add -ing
- For short, one-syllable verbs, that end with consonant + vowel + consonant (CVC), we must double the last consonant and then add -ing