The Present Simple and the Present Continuous 2B

Notice the present simple for

• making declarations about opinions and feelings, because the verbs tend to be state verbs: I feel he doesn’t understand the firm’s problems. We hope they know what they’re doing.
• headlines: These are written in a ‘telegram’ type of style, with references to the past usually simplified to the present simple: Author dies in fire at home.
• instructions, recipes and itineraries instead of the imperative. It makes the style more personal: On day 4 we visit the Cairngorms and proceed to Aviemore for an overnight stay.
• summaries of plays, films, or historical events: Romeo and Juliet: Act 1, scene 5: Romeo sees Juliet, and immediately falls in love with her. Tybalt starts a fight but Lord Capulet restrains him. As guests leave, Juliet questions the Nurse about the unknown young man.

1215: the first Magna Carta is signed defining limits to royal power.
The European Union is formally established when the Maastricht Treaty comes into force on 1 November 1993. Greece, Spain and Portugal join in the 1980s; Austria, Sweden and Finland apply for membership in 1995.

• the ‘historic present’ in narrative and funny stories: So a man with a banana in his ear walks into a doctor’s. "Why have you got a banana in your ear?" asks the doctor. "You’ll have to speak up," says the man, "I’ve got a banana in my ear."

The present continuous is used

• for continuous situations! He has not been well recently, so his deputy is dealing with the company’s finances.

• for repeated actions: She‘s always spending more than she can afford on shoes.

• for complaints about annoying habits: He’s forever complaining that they’re hard up. (hard up = informal for short of money)

• with verbs describing change and development: He is finding he rather enjoys lying in bed in the morning. Snow showers are moving in from the north.