My reply: Do you mean "things that are done habitually" cannot be regarded as Habit? I am afraid you have an incorrect way of defining things. What will you call "I brush my teeth"? Is it a habit or a habitual action?Originally Posted by riverkid
To be fair, people do use 'habit' to explain Simple Present:
I use Habit to stand for those which grammars use to describe the use of Simple Present, like Habitual Action, Routine, General Truth, Repeated Action, Permanency, etc. Are you sure we must use only "habitual action" to refer to Simple Present, instead of all other callings? Or will you insist that Simple Present denotes only habitual action, but not routine, nor General Truth, not Permanency?Present tenses
Simple present (or simply "present"): "I listen." For many verbs, this is used to express habit or ability ("I play the guitar").
Between Habit and Habitual Action, you are word-playing. If your sense of definition is that good, please try to define "present time". Maybe your wordplay is the best you can do to bypass its definition.
Most important, our examples are referring to the same kind of examples, like "I brush my teeth". We just use a calling to refer to all such examples. Must they be called only "habitual action"?
Actually, it is the sentence that expresses "habitual action, routine, or repeated action, or things that are done habitually". When the sentence denotes a Habit, various tenses also denote a habit, indicating different parts of time. If you have a habit "I brush my teeth", wouldn't Present Perfect "I have just brushed my teeth" be a habitual action also?
Actually, it is the sentence that expresses a meaning. As in the quoted example from wikipedia.org above, since the author takes up a Simple Present sentence that expresses ability "I play the guitar", he adds that the tense expresses also ability. How can you deny the expression of ability? You can't, because Simple Present can "express" any meanings.
People have always confused a sentence with a tense. And this is why they cannot define "the present time". They include you, of course.
Did you notice a correspondent here and I had discussed and concluded we use past tense, rather than present tense, to say past habitual actions? Will you add any different opinion?