D A V I S
E N G L I S H
present progressive and present simple
"Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment."
― Buddhist saying
“The past is gone, the future is not yet here, and if we do not go back to ourselves in the present moment, we cannot be in touch with life.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh (Buddhist monk)
There are two main present tenses in English (most languages have only one).
* We use the present simple tense when we want to talk about fixed habits or routines – things that don’t change.
* We use the present continuous (also called the present progressive) to talk about actions which are happening at the present moment, but will soon finish. Read this to better understand the present tenses.
Let's look at some examples:
"I play tennis" is in the present simple and
"I am playing tennis" is in the present continuous/ progressive.
So, "I play tennis" ((present simple) tells us that playing tennis is something the speaker often or always does. It is part of a routine or habit. We can call this a permanent situation. Like "I am a teacher". But, "I am playing tennis" tells us that the speaker is playing tennis right now. Soon the game will be over. Like "I am teaching". We call this a temporary situation.
Don't forget to add the s (or es) in the third person present simple!
Examples: he dances, she succeeds, it smells.
past simple and past progressive
Just as the present tense has two common forms — simple and progressive — so does the past tense. The simple past describes something that happened and is finished. Regular verbs simply add -ed (e.g. walked, helped, played), while irregular verbs change in unpredictable ways (e.g. ate, began, slept). Examples: I played tennis with Billy. I taught French.
The past progressive describes something that was ongoing for a period of time. It is formed with was or were + verb-ing (e.g. was eating, were playing). It typically sets the scene or provides background when another event occurred. Examples: I was playing tennis with Billy. I was teaching French.