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Why is the present continuous used in English so often in comparison to the simple present?

For example

I eat

is possible, but the preferred way

I am eating

meaning roughly the same thing, is much more complicated.

In most languages, the simple present is the standard form. But in English, the more complicated form is favored.

Why has the more wordy present continuous mostly displaced a simpler form verb?

Mitch
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ivanavdeyev
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    This makes no sense: a gerund *is* a verb! Please edit your question to provide several concrete examples of whatever it is you are talking about. – tchrist Mar 06 '18 at 11:37
  • Sorry my fault! The question is why that verb form has become so popular? – ivanavdeyev Mar 06 '18 at 13:53
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    You have to explain further, give an example where you think the gerund is unnecessary. Or "prove" that gerunds are overtaking the English language?! Where did you get this idea? Are you perhaps stuck on gerunds versus participles? – Mari-Lou A Mar 06 '18 at 14:01
  • Are you saying that using verbs in roles normally served by substantives like in "Eating hamburgers is very hard for me" or "I like eating hot dogs" or "To eat hot dogs is very hard for me" or "I like to eat hamburgers" somehow has those non-finite verb clauses “replacing” a finite verb clause? How so? How would you use eat as an inflected, finite verb that expresses the same thought? Try it with "she eats" and see where that leads you. – tchrist Mar 06 '18 at 14:02
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    @tchrist or the OP could be interested in why 'I am eating hotdogs' is more common than 'I eat hotdogs'. But the OP needs to edit to clarify and give examples. – Mitch Mar 06 '18 at 14:13
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    Other languages don't use it so extensively. – ivanavdeyev Mar 06 '18 at 14:17
  • Are you talking about why English says "I am eating" rather than the normal "I eat" more commonly found in other languages? – tchrist Mar 06 '18 at 14:25
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    I mean why the longer form was chosen over the shorter form for a more frequent usage case. And even more strange: why a lot of native English speakers tend to use that longer form even in those cases when it shouldn't be used. – ivanavdeyev Mar 06 '18 at 14:26
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    @ivanavdeyev Well, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian *can* use "be" plus a gerund in their progressive forms like English almost always does, so like Spanish "Estoy comiendo" for "I am (in the process of) eating". But that's not the normal case in those languages like it is in English; there, it draws special attention to the progressive aspect. I'm pretty sure that we have some questions about this here; let me see if I can't hunt those down for you. – tchrist Mar 06 '18 at 14:29
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    Usually such natural things as human languages tend "to optimize" themselves over the time. The inverse way looks a bit strange. A lot of languages use a gerund but its usage is very limited (unlike English which uses it extensively and it seems tends to employ it even more). Maybe that situation somehow is related to the situation with letters/sounds discrepancy in English? – ivanavdeyev Mar 06 '18 at 14:34
  • Here are some related questions: https://english.stackexchange.com/q/218460 https://english.stackexchange.com/q/59292 https://english.stackexchange.com/q/65687 https://english.stackexchange.com/q/10144 https://english.stackexchange.com/q/92014 https://english.stackexchange.com/q/106229 https://english.stackexchange.com/q/21846 https://english.stackexchange.com/q/150616 https://english.stackexchange.com/q/389585 https://english.stackexchange.com/q/177256 https://english.stackexchange.com/q/197145 https://english.stackexchange.com/q/95450 – tchrist Mar 06 '18 at 14:53
  • Thanks a lot for the related questions! And the answers as well of course. – ivanavdeyev Mar 06 '18 at 14:55
  • Greek makes very extensive use of participles (and thus of 'gerunds'). The study of the Greek verb includes a whole section just on participles of all shapes and sizes (which includes 'gerunds'). – Nigel J Mar 06 '18 at 15:17
  • @ivanavdeyev I took the liberty of rewording your question based on your comments, since you did not edit it yourself. I think you were misusing the word 'gerund' as it is the same form (-ing) as the present continuous. – Mitch Mar 06 '18 at 15:37
  • @ivanavdeyev : In my thought, it depends on human's balancing habit. That is, if the sentence is long, then we minimize it. If the sentence is very short, then we maximize it a little. – Hee Kwon Lee Mar 06 '18 at 15:37
  • @ivan I haven’t looked through the related questions linked to by tchrist, but I can at least tell you that, apart from the Romance languages, similar continuous constructions are very common in Irish and Scottish Gaelic and almost exclusive in Welsh, where the simple present is very rare and archaic in regular use. The continuous stresses precisely that an action is continuous or ongoing, as opposed to general or timeless, which is an exceedingly common thing to want to stress, and nearly all languages do it. English just happens to do it with participles. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Mar 06 '18 at 16:54
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    Do you have any evidence for your claim that 'the present continuous is used in English so often in comparison to the simple present? A simple Google search returns 24 million results for "I eat" and only 6 million for "I am eating" plus "I'm eating". – Shoe Mar 06 '18 at 17:05
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    Gerund... now it's present continuous. There's a fair bit of difference between "*Eating honey* is supposed to be good for you" and "*I'm* always *eating honey" or "I'm eating honey now" or "I eat honey* every day". Which form are you talking about? – Mari-Lou A Mar 06 '18 at 17:24

4 Answers4

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In English, 'I eat' is not actually a present tense, as such. The sentence :

I eat.

only conveys the concept of a state of activity. It is something I do, as part of my existence, throughout my lifetime.

I eat bread, I do not eat chicken ...

conveys a facet of my existence, an attribute of my humanity.

I am eating ...

is a true present tense. I am eating, now, presently.

Even if I say :

I am eating white bread this week and brown bread next week ...

it is still a present activity.

In my view, "I eat" can almost be regarded as an infinitive (in English).

Nigel J
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If I may, I'm going to cite the British Council (and this specific page).

Present continuous is used:

  • To talk about the present in the following cases:

→ for something that is happening at the moment of speaking

→for something which is happening before and after a given time (At eight o’clock we are usually having breakfast)

→ for something which we think is temporary (I’m working in London for the next two weeks.)

→ for something which is new and contrasts with a previous state (These days most people are using email instead of writing letters.)

→ to show that something is changing, growing or developing (The children are growing quickly.)

→ for something which happens again and again: (He’s always laughing.)

  • To talk about the future in the following case

→ for something which has been arranged or planned (I am going to the city this afternoon)

Using "I eat" does not clearly carry a meaning of "I am doing the action of eating".

CmcmA
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  • I'm not sure how this attempts to answer the given question. You may want to also explain the meaning of the simple present, and then attempt to explain how the present continuous is favored over the simple present (when they overlap in meaning or not). – Mitch Mar 06 '18 at 16:35
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The simple answer is this: where many other languages require the listener or reader to establish from context whether the message originator is specifying he is currently engaging in that activity or that, generally, he does but may or may not be doing so now ("Je conduis" tells you nothing about whether I simply know how to drive, or whether I am driving right this second), English has evolved to allow the distinction. I think the distinction is a valuable one, even if it makes English harder to learn for native speakers of other languages.

Jim MacKenzie
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  • I think "Je sais conduire" would most likely be used if you were saying you know how to drive. – Kiloran_speaking Mar 06 '18 at 22:04
  • @Kiloran_speaking That's true, technically, but in French, just as in English, you might say "I drive" as a way of saying that you are capable of driving. – Jim MacKenzie Mar 06 '18 at 22:09
  • You might well be right - it's not something I've encountered, though. I wonder if this is a difference between Canadian French and French French (!)? – Kiloran_speaking Mar 07 '18 at 11:39
  • @Kiloran_speaking It might be, although my French is a bit of an amalgam of that of France and Quebec (closer to the former). A better example might be "I drive to work"; in French the translation of this would be ambiguous (except from context) about whether the person habitually gets to work by driving, or is actually driving to work at the moment, whereas in English this is perfectly clear. – Jim MacKenzie Mar 07 '18 at 14:50
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I think it has to do with the way the language functions itself. On the other hand, present continuous is often used to talk about an action that´s taking place at the moment. There are other cases in which these could also be seen: How are you doing?, for instance. It´s true that more than ever before, there´s been a tendency to choose the longer form, but I think it´s idiomatic...

Martin 1966
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  • The final clarification of my question: people use present continuous much more frequently but for it they have a special form of a verb. A longer form. Present simple is used quite rarely but uses a shorter form. It's really strange. "I eat" and "I am eating" obviously the latter is in 99% of all cases. – ivanavdeyev Mar 07 '18 at 17:39