NI1 - Present simple versus present continuous

In these first lessons of our book we are dealing with present tenses. Here you are some explanation and exercises to practise.

PRESENT SIMPLE or habitual present is used to speak about ordinary actions, something you usually do (habitual actions). That's the reason why this tense is normally related to frequency adverbs (usually, hardly ever, never, often, sometimes...) or similar expressions of time (once a week, from time to time, every Monday, every other week...)

PRESENT CONTINUOUS or present progressive is used for actions which are being performed at that moment or for a period of time (actions in progress). It also has a sense of future when you are very sure that the action is going to take place in a short time (dates, arrangements...)

Let's see some examples:

• I always go to work by car but today I'm going by bus.
• I usually play tennis with my friend Tom but tomorrow I'm playing with Susan.

Here you have some links to work with:  

• this web page has a long but clear explanation and many exercises at the end: click here
• this link has grammar points and some exercises: click here
• try these exercises: exercise 1     exercise 2       exercise 3 

Hope this heps you. See you in class!