What’s the difference?Present Simple and Present Continuous – 24ο Δημοτικό Σχολείο Βόλου

Present Simple	Present Continuous
Things which are always true:Water boils at 100 degrees.	Things which are happening at the moment of speaking:The water is boiling now, so you can put in the pasta.
Permanent situations (or nearly permanent; true for a few years at least):Julie lives in London.	Temporary situations:Julie is living in Paris for a few months (usually she lives in London).I‘m getting better and better at speaking English.Situations which are slowly changing:
Habits or things we do regularly:I drink coffee every morning.	Temporary or new habits:I‘m drinking too much coffee these days because I’m so busy at work.My flatmate is always leaving the kitchen in a mess!Annoying habits (usually with ‘always’):
Future events which are part of a timetable:My plane leaves at eight tonight.I’ll call you when I get home.To talk about the future after certain words (‘when’ ‘until’ ‘after’ ‘before’ ‘as soon as’):	Definite future plans:I‘m meeting John after class today.
To talk about what happens in books, plays and films:At the end of the book, the detective catches the killer.	To talk about people in pictures and photos:In this photo, my mother is walking beside a lake.

Remember:

We use the present simple with stative verbs. We can’t use any continuous tense (including the present continuous tense, of course) with stative verbs.