Content tagged with "habitual actions"

Present

Would can express annoying habits which are typical of a person:

Tom would do something like that, wouldn't he? It's so typical of him!

Will is used to emphasise the characteristics of a person rather than describing the person himself or herself:

The past continuous is used to express repeated or habitual actions in the past that were temporary:

At that time, she was meeting him twice a week.
When I lived in London, I was getting up at 5 am to be able to get to work by 6.

The past simple is used to express habits and states that existed during a period of time in the past. This period can be implied or expressed with a time expression or a clause:

The present continuous tense is used to describe repeated, habitual actions that begin before a specific point in time (not necessarily the time of speaking) and finish after it. This point can be expressed with a time expression or a clause with a verb in the present simple tense: