| Hi, everybody. My name is Alisha. In this video, I'm going to talk about the differences between simple present tense and present continuous tense. I'm also going to talk about some common mistakes that we sometimes see with these grammar points. Let's get started. |
| Okay. First, I want to talk about simple present tense. When do we use simple present tense? We use simple present tense to express general facts and things that are always true. So, here are some examples of just simple facts, everyday information. Things that are always true. "She speaks Spanish." "She speaks Spanish." This is a fact. It's talking about someone's ability. The next one, "He exercises every day." "He exercises every day." This is like a regular action. It's kind of a fact, like part of someone's schedule. One more, "I work in the city." "I work in the city." Again, another basic fact about someone's life or about their schedule. So, these all express something that's always true or something that's true regularly. |
| We can also use simple present tense for schedules and timetables. So, when you're using a bus, or a train, an airplane, something like that and you're looking at the schedule for that thing, you'll probably see present tense used in full sentences to describe the times. For example, "The bus leaves at 2 p.m." "The bus leaves at 2 p.m." And, "The flight arrives at 10 a.m." "The flight arrives at 10 a.m." So, in these sentences, "leaves" and "arrives" are the verbs in simple present tense. We do this because we're expressing a timetable. If it's helpful, you can kind of think of these timetables like facts, like schedule facts, right? So, maybe a good keyword to think about for this grammar point is that we're thinking about facts with simple present tense. |
| So, lastly, let's talk about how we make simple present tense. If our subject is I, you, we or they, we follow it with the infinitive form of a verb. If we want to make the negative form, we place "don't" before the verb. So, in our example sentences here, we saw "I work in the city." In this sentence, the subject is "I," and the infinitive verb "work" is here. So, "I work." And, of course, there may be some extra information after the verb as in this case. So, "I work in the city." If the subject is he, she or it, we use the infinitive verb after it, plus S. This S is very important in speech and in writing, so don't forget it. This is a very common mistake. Learners of English often forget to pronounce the S, or they forget to write the S. So, don't forget this little S. It's very, very important. It seems like a small point, but you have to have it there. |
| So, let's look at some example sentences that follow this pattern. The first sentence we looked at, "She speaks Spanish," follows this pattern. So, "she," plus infinitive verb with an S. So, the infinitive verb is "speak," plus S. "She speaks Spanish." Here's another one, "he," "exercise" is the infinitive verb plus S, means "he exercises" is the correct sentence. "He exercises every day." And the last two, we have "the bus" and "the flight" as our subjects. So, we follow this it- pattern. So, "The bus leaves at 2 p.m." "The bus leaves at 2 p.m." Or, "The flight arrives at 10 a.m." Okay. |
| So, the final point I want to make about this grammar point is about the negative form here in red. If you want to make a sentence negative that has the I, you, we, they pattern, or the I/You with a subject, use "don't" before the infinitive verb. For example, to make this sentence negative we'd say, "I don't work in the city." Or if the subject is different, "You don't work," "We don't work," "They don't work in the city." So, use "don't" plus the infinitive verb to make the negative. |
| This point is one I want to again reinforce about a key difference between the positive and the negative forms. When your subject is he, she, or it, and you want to make a negative simple present tense statement, you use "doesn't" before the verb, but you do not include the S at the end. There is no change to the verb. So, for example, "She speaks Spanish," is our positive sentence. To make this negative, we would say, "She doesn't speak Spanish." So, when you make a negative with this grammar point, you do not need to follow this S, this extra S pattern that we talked about for the positive sentence. |
| Let's look at the next example. "He exercises every day." In a negative sentence would be, "He doesn't exercise every day." Our last two, "The bus leaves at 2 p.m." And the negative would be "The bus doesn't leave at 2 p.m." And, "The flight arrives at 10 a.m." becomes "The flight doesn't arrive at 10 a.m." Okay. So, again, a key point with this grammar is that we're talking about facts. Things that are regular, true, part of our schedule. Something that is regular in other words. So, we always know it's going to be true, or we always know that's the case. These are facts. |
| Okay. So, with this in our mind, let's compare this to present continuous tense. Present continuous tense. When should we use present continuous tense? We use this to express temporary actions or actions that are happening right now. You could understand this both ways. So, a temporary action means an action that is not regular. It's an action that happens just for a short time, or just for a moment even. Here are some examples, "She is speaking Spanish." "She is speaking Spanish." That means at this moment, she is speaking Spanish. Maybe she usually speaks English. So, we would use this to express a temporary action. Another one, "He is exercising." "He is exercising." This means this action is happening now. "He is exercising." Its temporary, too. One more, "I am working from home today." "I am working from home today." Here, we see again a temporary action. This action, "am working" or "working," refers to something that is not usual or it's just for a short time. In this case, we see "today" at the end. So, we know the time frame for the action. |
| So, all of these refer to something that is not typical. You might notice these follow very similar topics or they follow very similar structures to the first group of example sentences we looked at. So, both of these are 100% correct, but they communicate very different ideas. "She speaks Spanish" is a simple fact. We're talking about her ability. "She is speaking Spanish," means in this moment, she is using the Spanish language to communicate. So, depending on what you want to communicate, both of these might be correct. But you need to think about these points here. Is it a temporary action or a general fact? |
| Okay. Let's go on to the second part. We use present continuous tense for sure decisions or sure plans about the future. For example, "I'm going to the forest this weekend." "I'm going to the forest this weekend." Or, "They're coming to the concert." "They're coming to the concert." So, this use here expresses that we have a plan and we have decided that plan before the conversation. So, that means that there's no guessing, we're 100% about it. We sometimes use present continuous to express this. You might also hear people using "going to," the "going to" pattern to express this kind of sure plan, but we also sometimes use present continuous to do this. It's kind of up to the speaker to decide. So, you can decide whichever feels the most comfortable for you. They're both 100% correct. |
| Okay. Now, let's take a look at how we make a present continuous sentence. As with our first grammar point for today, we need to think about the subject. So, "I." If our subject is I, we follow it with the verb "am." So, "I am" plus our verb in the -ing form. So, the -ing form of the verb takes the base form of the verb and adds -ing to the end. For example, "I am working." "I am working." So, we have our -ing form here. If your subject is you, we, or they, we use "are" after it. "You are," "we are," "they are," plus our verb in the -ing form. So, for example, "They're," the reduced form, they are. "They are coming to the concert." So, "They are coming to the concert." This expresses a sure decision. Finally, if our subject is he, she, or it, we use "is" after it, and follow it again with the -ing form of the verb. So, some examples of this, "She is speaking Spanish." "She is speaking Spanish." Or, "He is exercising." So, we need to follow these patterns with our different, am/are/is, our different be verbs after that to create the present continuous form. |
| To make the sentence negative we simply add "not" before the verb. So, "She is not speaking Spanish." Or, "He is not exercising." Or, "I am not working from home today." So, these all again communicate a temporary action or a temporary condition, something that's just a short period of time only. But we can communicate that in the negative form as well. With the first example sentence, "She is speaking Spanish," that's the positive form, in the negative, "She is not speaking Spanish." You might want to say something like, "No, she's not speaking Spanish. She's speaking Portuguese." So, if you want to clarify what's happening right now, you might use this kind of pattern, this negative pattern. |
| Okay. So, now that we know this let's talk about a couple of very common mistakes that I see with these two grammar points. The most common one that I see I think is about a sentence like this. This difference between "where you work" or maybe "when you work," something related to your working schedule. If someone asks you, "Where do you work?" a very common mistake that I hear is people answering with this grammar point. They say, "I am working in ABC City." Something like that. The reason that is incorrect is because we use this grammar pattern for a temporary action. So, your workplace is not temporary. At least. Unless you are maybe freelance and you change your job every couple weeks. But, if you're talking about the place you go every day or every week, this grammar pattern choice is incorrect. You need to use the general fact grammar pattern. "I work in ABC City," would be the correct way to express your workplace. So, this is maybe the most common mistake that I see with the grammar point like this. |
| Another thing to keep in mind is that when we use mental state or emotion-related verbs, like "like" or "hate" or "love," we typically do not use present continuous tense with these. We typically use simple present tense with these. So, for example, "He likes sweets," or "She loves salty foods." Those kind of expressions, those kind of mental or emotional things, those mind-related words, we typically use those with simple present tense. Why? Because it's kind of strange to think of "liking" or "loving" something as a temporary action, right? So, there are a few situations where you might hear someone express like, "I'm loving such and such thing," like maybe for a temporary situation. For like a very short time, a situation that happens only for a short time, you might hear someone say, "I'm liking this," or "I'm loving that." But the reason that that's used, that temporary reaction grammar point is used, is because that thing or that condition is happening for a short time only. So, we typically only use those kinds of "I'm liking that" or "I'm loving that" in situations where that thing that we like is just there for a moment. When we talk about our basic information, the things that we like and the things that we dislike, we typically use simple present tense to do that. So, "He likes this," "I like that," "She hates this," "She hates that." We don't say, "She is hating" or "He is liking," those kinds of things. So, please keep this in mind. When you're using those mental and emotion-related verbs. |
| Okay, great! So, those are the differences between simple present tense and present continuous tense. I hope that you found something helpful in this lesson. Of course, if you have any questions or comments or if you want to practice making some example sentences with this information, please feel free to do so in the comment section of this video. Thanks very much for watching this lesson, and I will see you again soon. Bye. |
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