Present simple or present continuous

When you use it

The two present tenses answer different questions. The present simple says what is generally true: habits, routines, facts, permanent situations. The present continuous says what is going on around now: an action in progress, a temporary state, a change that is happening. The same verb can appear in both, and the choice changes the meaning, not the grammar. If you can add every day or usually, you want the simple. If you can add right now or at the moment, you want the continuous.

How it is formed

Both forms are explained in their own lessons; here they stand side by side.

The auxiliaries never mix: do / does belongs to the simple, be belongs to the continuous.

Note the two futures at the end of the table. A personal arrangement takes the continuous; an official timetable takes the simple, because a timetable is treated as a fact.

Some verbs change their meaning between the two tenses. Have meaning "own" is a state and stays simple; have meaning "eat" or "experience" is an activity and can be continuous. Think meaning "believe" is simple; think about as a process is continuous. See meaning "perceive" is simple; see meaning "meet" can be continuous.

Examples

• Tom works in a hospital, but this month he is working from home.
• I usually drink coffee, but today I am drinking tea.
• Anna lives in Kyiv. She is staying with her aunt this week.
• Tom speaks three languages. Right now he is talking to a customer in German.
• I think you are right. Wait, I am thinking about it.
• Anna has a small car. She is having lunch at the moment.
• We love this café, so we come every Sunday.
• Do you see that bird? It is looking straight at us.

Each pair shows the same verb, or a close one, in both tenses. The first half gives the general picture; the second half says what is happening now.

Common mistakes

• ✗ I am liking this song.
  ✓ I like this song.
  Verbs of feeling, thinking, possession and perception (like, love, want, know, believe, own, seem, hear) describe states, not activities. Ukrainian and Russian have no continuous at all, so the temptation is to attach -ing to everything that is true "now". The test is whether the situation is an activity with a beginning and an end.
• ✗ I am going to the gym every Tuesday.
  ✓ I go to the gym every Tuesday.
  Every, always, usually, often signal a routine, and a routine takes the simple. Slavic aspect does not help here: «ходжу / хожу» is imperfective whether the action is a habit or in progress, but English requires the simple form for repetition.
• ✗ Be quiet, the baby sleeps.
  ✓ Be quiet, the baby is sleeping.
  «Дитина спить / ребёнок спит» is the only option in Ukrainian and Russian. English needs the continuous when the action is in progress at this moment; the baby sleeps would describe a habit, as in the baby sleeps well.
• ✗ Does she working today?
  ✓ Is she working today? / Does she work today?
  Learners sometimes take the auxiliary from one tense and the verb from the other. Do goes with the base verb; be goes with -ing. They never appear together in one verb form.
• ✗ The soup is tasting good.
  ✓ The soup tastes good.
  Taste, smell, look, sound, feel as descriptions of a quality are states. They only take the continuous when someone does something on purpose: the cook is tasting the soup.

Try it