When I was watching a film festival program on television, Mr. Sharuk Khan (Indian actor) was giving a speech in Bengali (local language) not fluently and in English fluently. First, he starts speaking Bengali little with difficulty then changes to English rest of the time. While speaking English. He pauses and says "My Bengali speech continues, has not stopped yet". Saying this, he goes on speaking Bengali and English. This is the context.
Now my question is:
Why does he use "My Bengali speech continues" in present simple tense and not "My Bengali speech is continuing" in present progressive tense? Also, I see these types of sentences in news headlines such as "Fight over demonetisation continues in parliament" so in this case why is simple present used and why is not continuous "Fight over demonetisation is continuing in parliament" not used?
Best Answer
Although you may be thinking that "-ing" means for an action to be happening now, to say
is incomplete and leaves a question in the listener's mind of either "Continuing what?" or "When does it continue?"
by saying
he is saying it is continuous and uninterrupted this is especially true after he says
"has not stopped yet".