Simple present tense - is it really so simple?
The simple present tense, which is usually the first lesson in any grammar-based syllabus for learning English as a Second/Foreign Language, is deceptively complex. I think that one thing that compounds this difficulty is the name of the tense itself. The name, which is derived from comparison of the FORM of this tense with that of simple present tenses in other languages, belies the complex nature of its usage in English.
The worst thing is that it's actually not present. Instead, it has quite specific time-related rules, such as the following: habitual action, general truths, repeated action, sensory perception, etc. The actual present time in English is expressed using the present progressive (continuous) tense. This leads to misunderstandings when the tense is used incorrectly.
The following is a quote from a Yahoo group I belong to. This group is for those who want to discuss issues relating to the Turkish language. You can find it at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/turkishlearner/. Here is what the contributor wrote:
"I know two language centeres in Istanbul which are
organizing language courses in turkish at every time
of the year."
What the writer, a native Bulgarian speaker, meant to say of course was "which organize ..." (or even "which offer..."). Her statement could easily be misunderstood to mean that these language centers are currently in the process of organizing these courses. I would attribute this error to an incomplete understanding of when each of these two tenses is used, resulting in an "overgeneralization" error - having learned that the present progressive is often used in many places where her natural (Bulgarian) impulse would have been to use the simple present, she employed the present progressive here where the simple present would have been the correct tense.
I submit that the Simple Present Tense should be renamed: The Complex Present Tense.
posted by Laura Blumenthal @ 6:46 p.m.
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