1) neutral present
a) states what is true for all time, permanent situations; technical, scientific facts; Water boils at 100o C.
b) actions, situations considered permanent; He works in a bank.
2) iterative present
habitual actions, existed before now, and may be assumed to continue to exist; I (always) take sugar in coffee.
3) future
a) after when, till, until, etc. What are you going to do when you leave school?
b) in conditional type 1 I will be glad if it rains soon.
c) programmes, timetables and itineraries; 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.
4) description, narration
a) demonstrations of experiments, or step-by-step instructions: First you put a lump of butter into a frying-pan and
light the gas; while the butter is melting I break three eggs into a bowl, like this ...
b) commentaries on radio and television; both present continuous and present simple may be used, simple present is used for "quicker", shorter actions (which are finished before the sentence which describes them), present continuous is used for longer actions, (similar relation between the simple and progressive form in the past); And Smith passes to Devaney,
Devaney to Barnes, Barnes across to Lucas - and Taylor intercepts, Taylor to Peters - and he
shoots and it's a goal! Whitney are leading by three goals to nil in the first half.
c) historical present: to give immediacy and vividness to past actions (real or fictitious); for events in the story, present continuous is used for "background" situations;
There's this Scotsman, you see, and he is walking through the jungle when he meets a gorilla. And the gorilla is
eating a snake sandwich. So the Scotsman goes up to the gorilla and says 'Excuse me,' he says, 'but where did
you get that snake sandwich?' So the gorilla looks at the Scotsman, and he drums his great fists on his hairy
chest, and he lets out a terrible roar, and says, 'At the snake bar round the corner.'
Last night Blackie comes in with this huge dead rat in her mouth and drops it right at my feet!
d) stage directions;
5) other
a) announcements
b) headlines
c) instead of the past simple or present perfect in expressions like I see, I hear, I gather (used to talk about things one has
found out) and in introducing quotations:
I hear you are getting married.
I see there's been trouble in Rome again.
I gather Peter's looking for a job.
Shakespeare says ...
flyforfun