Simple Present vs. Progressive - More Exercises

Gentlemen, this site offers you a virtual way to practise Present Tense Simple in contrast to Present Tense Progressive.
http://www.ego4u.de/de/cram-up/grammar/simpre-prepro/exercises
The site will also tell you if your answers are right, so check it out.

Exercise Present Tense Simple vs Progressive - mit Lösungen!

Decide whether to use Presentt Tense Simple or Progressive / Continuous.
1. Jim ____________________ (to drive) on the motorway when his mobile phone ____________________ (to ring).
2. What ____________________ (you /to do) right now? - I ____________________ (to be) busy.
3. He ____________________ (to drive) fast when the police ____________________ (to stop) him.
4. After I ____________________ (to finish) an email, I sometimes ____________________ (to press) the wrong key, and the screen ____________________ (to turn) black.
5. Vera ____________________ (to sit) in a café all afternoon.

Solutions:

1. is driving / rings - Dass Jim fährt, ist die ältere Handlung. Diese ist schon im Verlauf, als das Handy klingelt. Die ältere Handlung steht im Progressive, die jüngere Handlung steht im Simple.

2. are you doing / am - In dem Satz war zuvor ein Tippfehler. "right now" ist Signalwort für das Progressive. Formen von "to be" stehen immer im Simple.

3. is driving / stops - Entspricht von der Form her Satz 1.

4. finish / press / turns - Hierbei handelt es sich um eine Aufzählung von Handlungen, die nacheinander abgeschlossen werden. Deswegen stehen sie im Simple. "often" bezieht sich hier sowohl auf "press" als auch auf "turns"; beides geschieht oft. "often" ist Signalwort für das Simple, da es Regelmäßigkeit zum Ausdruck bringt.

5. is sitting - "all afternoon" = "den ganzen Nachmittag lang" betont, dass es sich um einen längeren Zeitraum handelt. Deswegen benutzt man hier das Progressive.

Special Notes: Acronyms and Abbreviations on Chat and in Text Messaging

It has become very common to use acronyms and abbreviations on internet chat and in text messaging. However, that way of writing is highly informal. Do not use it in letters or in essays, only use it on chat and in text messaging if the person you are writing to does the same. Sometimes you will find such acronyms and abbreviations on work notes; this is to make the message shorter, but that does not mean you can use them when writing to your boss!

The most common acronyms and abbreviations are:
2 = to / too
4 = for
8 = ate; l8r = later

ASAP = as soon as possible
BBL = be back later
b/c = because
BRB = be right back
C = see
CU = see you
FYI = for your information
G2G = got to go
IIRC = if I remember correctly
IMHO = in my humble opinion
IMNSHO = in my not so humble opinion
M/T = empty
o/c = of course
TGIF = Thank God, it's Friday!
THX = thanks
TY = thank you
U = you
w/ = with
w/o = without
Y = why

Special Notes: Handwriting Ciphers

People write ciphers differently in English speaking countries from the way people write ciphers in Germany. In most cases, there will not be much space for confusion. Just note that '1' can look like 'I' in English.

It is important to write ciphers the English way when you are filling in your immigration form for the USA; sometimes people will be asked to fill in a new form if they haven't gone by the English standard.

Special Notes: Writing the Date

There are different ways of writing the date in English. Generally, dates are read the same way, for example: the first of September two thousand and seven.

In Britain, you can write the date the following way: 01/09/2007 respectively 01/09/07.
First comes the day, then the month, then the year.

In America, the date is often written this way: 09/01/2007 respectively 09/01/07.
Here, the month comes first, followed by the day and the year.

As you can see, those two different ways of writing the date can be confusing, because you cannot always tell what the day and what the month is. Therefore the safest way of writing the date is 1 September 2007 respectively 1st September. Only use the abbreviations 'st' (for 'first'), 'nd' ('second'), 'rd' ('third'), 'th' ('fourth', 'fifth', 'sixth' etc.) when you do not write the year.

You may have seen other ways of writing the date (e.g. September 1, 2007 / September 2007, 1); those ways are outdated even if some people – and many schoolbooks for English learners – still use them.

A common short way of writing the date, for example in notes, is 1 Sep 2007.

Informal Letters

Informal letters in English typically go by the following standard:
The sender's address goes into the top right-hand corner, followed by a blank line and the date. In contrast to German, you do not write your name on top of the address in English letters.
It is still common practice to use a comma after the salutation. Despite the comma, the first line of a letter always begins with a capital letter.

To set off paragraphs in an English letter, you can either indent the first line of each paragraph (that means you 'move' the first word of the line to the right; use the tab stop key to that effect when you write the letter using an Office programme), or you can leave a blank line after each paragraph; this is called block style.

The letter is followed by a closure. Put a comma after the closure. Your – handwritten – name goes into the next line. Do not print your name under your handwritten signature in informal letters.
Note that in American English the sender's address and the date often are written in the top left hand corner.

Welcome

Welcome to E-English-Class!

This blog is meant to be a virtual addition to classroom teaching. Readers will have the opportunity to ask me questions or contact each other through the comment section. This blog is created for specific EFL classes I am teaching. While anybody is free to participate, I choose to enable comment moderation to ensure that comments will stick to the respective post's topic.

It's the first time for me to use a web 2.0 facility to complement my regular teaching, therefore I ask you to bear with me as things may show to be rather experimental at times.

Enjoy!

Sarah

P.S.: The formatting doesn't always work the way I want it to, but I hope to gradually figure it out.