IV. The Use of the Present Indefinite

1) The Present Indefinite is used to denote permanent actions and states:

• Alice works for an insurance company.
• Her daughter is rather naughty.

2) The Present Indefinite is used to denote habitual and repeated actions.

• Do you often come to those parties?
• He wakes up and has a cup of coffee.
• Uncle Tom goes to his summer house every weekend.

3) The Present Indefinite is used to state laws of nature and general (universal) truths of the physical world, including the generalised folk wisdom expressed in proverbs and other statements made “for all time”:

• Two plus two makes four.
• Magnet attracts iron.
• It never rains but it pours.
• It snows in winter.

4) The Present Indefinite can denote events simultaneous with the present moment and normally occurs in certain easily definable contexts.

a) The Present Indefinite is used with verbs that do not have continuous forms:

• I don't understand what you mean.
• Do you object, Dad?
• I like this wine very much.
• I believe you.

b) The Present Indefinite is preferred to the Present Continuous when the progress of the action is not uppermost in the mind of the speaker. It is the occurrence itself, the action as such that attracts the attention of the speaker and the idea of its progress becomes unimportant at the moment, but the attending circumstances (the time, the manner, the place);

• You leave me no choice.
• I refuse to listen to you. You talk such nonsense.

c) The Present Indefinite is used to express declarations, announcements, etc. usually with the first person of performative verbs which perform the act named by actually being spoken, i.e. you do things by saying smth: when you promise to do smth, you say 'I promise...', when you advise to do smth., you say 'I advise...', etc. Common performative verbs are: accept, agree, apologize, congratulate, declare, deny, disagree, forbid, forgive, guarantee, insist, invite, order, predict, promise, recommend, refuse, thank, warn, etc.

• I declare the meeting over.
• I agree to your proposal.
• I give you my word.
• I apologise for the mistake.

d) In sports commentaries:

• Lydiard passes to Taylor, Taylor shoots – and it’s a goal!

5) The Present Indefinite can be used instead of the imperative to give instructions (often with the impersonal you). The imperative in such sentences sounds more abrupt.

• You sprinkle some cheese on the pizza and then you bake it.
• How do I get to the station? – You go straight on to the traffic lights, then you turn left,...

6) It is used, chiefly, with the verb 'say'(advise/warn), when we are asking about or quoting from books, notices or very recently received letters

• What does that notice say? - It says, 'No parking'.
• I see you've got a letter from Ann. What does she say?
• She says she is coming to London next week.
• Shakespeare says, 'Neither a borrower nor a lender be.'
• Shakespeare advises us not to borrow or lend.
• It says in the paper that petrol’s going up again.

7) In stage directions:

• When the curtain rises, Juliet is writing at her desk. Suddenly the window opens and a masked man enters.

8) The Present Indefinite is also found in exclamatory, interrogative and negative-interrogative sentences.

• My dear, how you throw about your money!
• Why do you talk like that to me?

9) Note the structures here comes... and there goes...:

• Here comes your husband!
• There goes our bus – we’ll have to wait for the next one.

10) Some fixed phrases that are used in letter-writing can be expressed either in the Present Indefinite (more formal) or in the Present Continuous (less formal).

• We write to advise you... (Less formal: We are writing to let you know...)
• I enclose my cheque for £200. (Less formal: I am enclosing...)
• I look forward to hearing from you... (Less formal: I’m looking forward to hearing....)

The Present Indefinite is used to denote future actions

1) In subordinate clauses of time, condition and concession after the conjunctions w hen, while, till, until, before, after, as soon as, as long as, once (time), if, unless, on condition (that), provided, in case (condition), e ven if, even though, no matter how, whenever, whatever, however (concession), etc.;

• We will start as soon as she is ready.
• Send for me, in case she feels worse.
• I'll have dinner whenever it is ready.

Note 1: In object clause after 'to see' (in the meaning of 'to understand'), 'to take care' and 'to make sure' the Present Indefinite is used to speak about future actions.

• I'll see that the lady is properly looked after.
• Her husband will make sure no harm comes to her.
• He will take care that no one interferes with them.

Note 2: The conjunctions 'if' and 'when' can introduce object clauses, then any future tense according to the sense is possible.

• I wonder if/when it will stop raining.

2) The Present Indefinite may be used to indicate a future action which is certain to take place according to a timetable, program, schedule, command or arrangement worked out for a person officially (a plan or arrangement regarded as unalterable). In this case the sentence usually contains an indication of the future time.

• We start for Istanbul tonight.
• His train arrives at 11.46.
• I start my new job tomorrow.

3) The use of the Present Indefinite with reference to the immediate future is structurally dependent in some special questions. In such questions one asks after the will of the person addressed. Thus the tense has a modal colouring.

• What do we do next?
• What do I say when I come in?
• Where do we go now?

4) In suggestions with Why don’t you...?

• Why don’t you take a day off tomorrow?

5) In descriptions of travel arrangements:

• On day three we visit Stratford-upon-Avon.
• We leave London at 10.00 next Tuesday and arrive in Paris at 13.00. We spend two hours in Paris and leave again at 15.00. We arrive in Rome at 19.30, spend four hours in Rome, etc.

The Present Indefinite is used to denote past actions:

1) In newspaper headlines, cartoons captions, chapter headings (perhaps because of its brevity and dramatic vividness):

• Peace Talks Fail
• Mass Murderer Escapes

2) In an informal style to describe a succession of past events (the historic present). Past events are portrayed or imagined as if they were going on at the present time, so we give the description greater reality. Mind that in such stories the present continuous is used for “background” – things that are already happening when the story starts, or that continue through the story.

• She arrives home full of life and spirit, and about a quarter of an hour later she sits down in a chair, gasps a bit and dies.
• There’s this Scotsman, you see, and he’s walking through the jungle when he meets a gorilla. And the gorilla’s eating a snake sandwich. So the Scotsman goes up to the gorilla...
• So I open the door, and I look out into the garden, and I see this man. He’s wearing pyjamas and a policeman’s helmet. “Hello,” he says...

3) The Present Indefinite is common in summaries of plays, stories, etc.

• In Act I, Hamlet sees the ghost of his father. The ghost tells him....
• Chapter 2: Henry goes to Scotland and meets the Lock Ness Monster.
• May 1945: The war in Europe comes to an end.

4) More commonly, we report past events when using verbs of communication in the present to imply that what was said or heard still applies (often with the meaning of the Present Perfect) in the expressions I forget, I hear, I am told, I learn, I see, I understand. The Present Indefinite is used with a perfect or past meaning in introductory expressions like I hear, I see, I understand, I gather, etc.

• I hear you are getting married. (=I have heard)
• I am told she returned from France last week.
• I see there’s been trouble down at the factory.
• I hear you've come a long way.

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