PRESENT SIMPLE and PRESENT CONTINUOUS | the complete grammar guide

hi everyone i'm arnelle and welcome to today's lesson present simple or present continuous now these two tenses are very special because you can use them to speak about the present of course but also the future and even the past [Music] basics formation you can see here i have my present simple and present continuous the present simple uses the base verb verb number one like play eat smile go remember that third person form with present continuous i have my b form i am you are etc plus that verb ing playing eating smiling going these are positive sentences what about negatives and questions don't worry we'll get to that let's keep going so let's do this lesson in three parts present future and past okay present simple things that never change like facts my name is arnell apples grow on trees chickens lay eggs fact fact fact what other things never change habits routines permanent situations i always put milk in my coffee my son has soccer club every friday i work as a teacher we do not use the present continuous for these things so when when do we use a present continuous for an action happening now now i am talking to you look at this video i'm talking to you now you are listening to this lesson i hope you are listening to this lesson an action happening now or in the general present period i'm helping my sister find a new apartment i'm not doing that now now i'm talking to you but generally in the present i am doing this in some english exams they ask you to describe a picture use the present continuous because you are looking at the picture now for example a man and a woman are talking they are sitting next to a window in an office building the woman has curly brown hair present continuous because they are doing these things now and present simple has because this won't change right it's her hair color before we continue let's look at those negatives and questions let's start with present simple i have be the king of verbs because it is the most common verb in english and i have other verbs you can see my positive sentences here to form the negative add not after be simple right let's contract i'm not a teacher david isn't or david's not my neighbor they aren't or they're not and my other verbs are here now we cannot just add not we need more do does not plus base verb i do not work from home i don't work from home you do not sing very well you don't sing very well frankie does not know how to make cheesecake see even in the third person we keep the base verb knows frankie doesn't know okie dokie the good news is questions are very similar be plus subject are you a teacher is david your neighbor am i next in line dude does plus subject and that face verb do you work from home does frankie know how to make cheesecake nose present continuous and this time it's pretty simple look at my sentence where does not go after b we are not driving to california we aren't or we are not i am fixing the sink i am not fixing the sink i'm not questions b plus subject and ing are we driving to california is zach fixing the sink let's compare i work in a bank i'm working in a bank we have the present simple and present continuous we know the present simple is for things that never change permanent situations we know the present continuous is used for something happening now or in this general time so it's temporary temporary means short term the first one this is my job it was my job in the past it's my job now it will be my job in the future i'm working a bank maybe i have a two-month contract i'm expecting a change you can see this temporary situation in my next example he is doing his masters a a masters is temporary b he is doing it now in this period you can see it doesn't work in the present continue it doesn't work in the present simple he does his masters that's very unnatural because a masters isn't something you do forever even though you might feel like that let's look at this the other way around let's look at verbs that are not normally continuous i know tom i like mangoes i don't believe in ghosts you can see it doesn't work in the present continuous why because these are like facts you know someone or you don't you like something or you don't you believe in something or you don't we call these verbs stative verbs remember understand agree belong these are all examples of stative verbs stated verbs show our emotions our thoughts in english we do not use data verbs in continuous tenses if you want more information on state of verbs i have a video somewhere here and i'll also put it in the description below for you okay i know there's been a lot of information so far so let's do some complaining my colleague is always playing games on her phone they are constantly arguing you are forever telling me what to do you can see i have the present continuous here and the adverbs always constantly forever yes you can use a present simple my colleague always plays games on her phone they constantly argue you always tell me what to do we wouldn't say you forever tell me what to do but if we use these three adverbs in the present continuous we are complaining it's a way to emphasize a complaint and it's informal she is always arriving on time is that something you complain about someone arriving on time in this case you need to use a present simple she always arrives on time use always constantly forever with the present continuous if you really want to complain about something you're not just speaking about a habit or routine mini review use the present simple for facts habits routines permanent situations and with stative verbs use the present continuous for an action happening now or in this present period temporary situations or if you're complaining using always constantly and forever let's keep going future present simple a fixed scheduled event what do i mean by fixed you cannot change it what do i mean by scheduled there is a schedule what types of things have a schedule transportation stores opening and closing times movie theaters lessons appointments our train leaves at eight tomorrow i can go to the bank in the morning it opens at nine our movie is at 9 20 tonight when is your yoga class it's at 4 this afternoon my doctor's appointment is in june if the time in a conversation is clear you don't even need to use the time phrases here because it's clear the present simple is for something in the future that has been scheduled you cannot change these times yes you can change your doctor's appointment but you cannot change a doctor's schedule tip we do not use appointment with family or friends use the word appointment when you need a service a doctor's appointment a dental appointment an appointment with your hairdresser if we're speaking about family and friends we normally use a verb i'm meeting sandra later i'm meeting present continuous and later present continuous use it for a future arrangement what do i mean by an arrangement you have the time you have the date and you have all the details organized i'm meeting sandra later here both sandra and i know when two o'clock where the cafe on harper street why because we want to gossip everything has been organized use that present continuous even for the future we're moving on the fifth i have the date the fifth i've already booked the the moving truck everything has been organized what are you doing over christmas i'm spending christmas with my parents sometimes the present simple and the present continuous can be used interchangeably in the same way i start university in september i'm starting university in september present simple because this is a fixed scheduled event the university decided on the time and date present continuous because this is something i've arranged i've been accepted i have my dormitory i have all my materials my arrangement has been organized mini review again present simple for a fixed scheduled event present continuous for an arrangement something you have planned okay past last point normally when we speak about the past we use narrative tenses right tenses like past simple past continuous we went hiking the sun was shining and there wasn't a single gray cloud in sight we hiked fished and cooked all of our meals over and opened fire but sometimes we do use the present simple and present continuous when we're telling a story if we really want to pull the listener or the reader into the moment arnel what happened yesterday okay so i walk into the office right i'm early it's about 7 30. i see carlos and katrina sitting in the meeting room they don't know i'm there they're talking and all of a sudden they start kissing like crazy okay that's not a real story but you can kind of feel that excitement right with my present simple and present continuous i've tried to pull you into the moment don't don't use a present simple and present continuous if you're just talking about the past or giving information so can you think of any other tenses you find confusing i have a video here present perfect or present perfect continuous i know that's a big question a lot of you have let me know in the comments below thank you so much for watching and i can't wait to make another video for you thank you bye

Channel: Arnel's Everyday English

Views: 592,329

Keywords: present simple, present continuous, english grammar

Id: W3HdjN3cLiM

Length: 15min 21sec (921 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 15 2021