Elizabeth's English Lectures (CEO, A-listers Academy/ALA)

Photo Credit: Freepik  The following verbs do not use the –ing form. If we add –ing to them, they are not verbs anymore. They become Gerund, but we will discuss Gerund in another blog post. In the English grammar, there are some rules, word sets, and words that we just need to memorize, because there is no technical explanation to those.  These are the verbs that don’t normally use the Present Continuous form. Believe I believe that my country will be great again in the near future. (NOT I’m believing…) Belong This car belongs to Elon. Consist This food consists of meat, vegetables, butter, and sugar. Contain Coffee contains a substance that keeps us awake; it’s called caffeine. Depend Don’t depend on other people for financial support. You have to be self-sufficient. Hate Everybody hates mosquitoes. Who in the world likes mosquitoes??? Like Children like sweet foods. Love Love yourself first before you love someone else. Mean I did not mean

Photo credit: Freepik  “But how do I know when to use Present Continuous or Present Simple?” This is a question often asked by students. This depends on the speaker, and this depends on what is happening at the moment. Compare: A: Listen! The baby is crying! B: Yes, the baby is crying! Maybe he is hungry! In example above, the speakers are talking about the current situation. They are describing the current situation. Compare: A: Babies are noisy. B: Yeah. Babies cry. The speakers are not   necessarily looking at or listening to a crying baby at the time of speaking. They are simply stating the fact, the reality, that babies cry. More Examples: Kokia is singing now. (We are talking about what Kokia is doing NOW.)  Kokia sings well. (We are stating a fact.)  Mr. Jack is washing his car. He washes his car every Saturday. My mother is in the kitchen. She is cooking ssamgepsal. She cooks ssamgepsal every Sunday evening. JAPANESE TRANSLATION By: Google Transl

  Picture by: Freepik  We already know that we use the base form/original form of a verb when we use the Present Simple. But, when exactly do we use the Present Simple Form?   We use the Present Simple Form when we talk about things that happen generally. Example: * Americans love football and Canadians love winter sports. In the example sentence above, we are talking about the Americans in general. Of course, there are many Americans who don’t like football at all, and there are many Canadians who do not enjoy playing winter sports. We are talking about the Americans and the Canadians as a whole, as a nation, as a group or race of people. The action is not necessarily happening at the time of speaking. We use the Present Simple when we talk about things that we always/often do. Examples: I usually wake up at 5:00 in the morning. I exercise in front of my house every morning and every evening. My dog always barks at my neighbor’s dog. How do we form the negative o