Present Vs. Present Progressive – One Point English Lesson | Happy English

Here on Long Island, we are in the middle of a very cold winter. Today is especially cold. I am looking out the window into my garden. It looks cold! We have had a lot of snow as well. In fact, it snows every week, and it is snowing now. In my house, I am the one who has to shovel the snow. It looks like my neighbor is shoveling his driveway now, while it is snowing. I shovel after the snow has stopped.

For today’s English lesson, we will look at basic verb tenses – simple present and present progressive. We will also look a bit at some stative verbs which can be used in simple or progressive forms.

Simple Present is used in two ways. First, it is used when we make statements about “general facts”. General facts can be true in the past, in the present, and in the future:

It looks cold outside.
Today is Sunday.
Snow falls from the sky.

Secondly, we used simple present when we talk about our habits ore usual activities:

I shovel after the snowstorm.
My dog eats in the evening.
Yalcin studies English an hour a day.

Present Progressive is used in two ways as well. First, it is used to describe activities that are in progress at the moment of speaking/happening right now. These are activities that began in the past and will likely end sometime in the future:

It is snowing.
My neighbor is shoveling his driveway.
The dog is sleeping on the sofa.

Present Perfect is also used when an activity is generally in progress “these days” – maybe not at the exact moment of speaking, but generally:

I am writing a blog to help people learn English.
My sister is taking a business course at Nassau Community College.
Did you hear? Nobuko is writing a book!

These activities are going on generally, but maybe not at this moment. My sister has a business course, but may not be in the classroom at this moment.
If you know anyone who might be interested in this English language point, why not help them out! Just share this lesson with them. Thanks for studying today!

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