Simple Present vs Present Continuous

There are differences between the simple present and the present continuous.

The major difference between them is that we use the present simple tense when we want to talk about fixed habits or routines

We use the present continuous to talk about actions which are happening at the moment.

For example:

We also use the simple present to talk abou permanent situations and we use the present continuous to talk about temporary situations

For example:

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Examples: Simple Present vs Present Continuous

These are some examples about both tenses so you can see the difference between them

These are some examples of affiirmative sentences in both tenses

Simple Present	Present Continuous
I speak Dutch with my grandma	I am speaking with my school friends
You drive a car to work	You are driving a car
He plays every day	He is playing soccer in the soccer field
She watches TV every night	She is watching a new TV show on Netflix
We live in Australia	We are living in Alaska

These are some examples of negative sentences in both tenses

Simple Present	Present Continuous
I *don’t speak* English	I *am not* speaking with my friends
You *don’t know* how to drive a car	You aren’t driving a car right now
He doesn’t play every day	He isn’t playing soccer at the moment
She doesn’t watch TV	She isn’t watching TV, She isn’t playing soccer
We *don’t live* here anymore	We *aren’t living* in Alaska, we are living in California

These are some questions in both tenses in English

Simple Present	Present Continuous
*Do you cook* every night?	*Are you cooking* dinner for us?
Do you always buy clothing online?	*Are you buying* shoes again?
Does she come here every tuesday?	*Are you coming* tomorrow ?
Does he do exercises every tuesday night?	*Is he doing* exercises?
*Why do you do* that all the time?	What are you doing?
*What do you usually eat* at home?	What are you eating?
*Where do you* go for fun?	Where *are you going* tonight?

The present simple uses frequency adverbs and the present progressive uses other adverbs as signal words

These are some examples using both tenses and some of the signal words from above

Simple Present: I always drink coffee before going to work
Present Progressive: I am drinking coffee now.

These are some verbs that you don’t use when you are making statements and questions using the present continuous

Verb	Example
Like	I like to watch movies with my friend
Love	I love running in the mornings with my colleagues
Want	I want to watch a movie tonight with my girl
Know	I know what you are talking about
Understand	I don’t undertand what you are saying
Remember	I remember playing with my friends
Prefer	I prefer running instead of jogging
Hate	I hate playing chess with my little brother
Depend	She depends on me for everything she does
Believe	I believe you are watching too much Netflix
Forget	I forgot to bring the grammar book