[shun]

Originally Posted by riverkid

Actually, I'd say that's the norm for the present simple; it describes repeated actions that are habits and routines. Would you not agree, Mr P?

My reply: It is a shame you gentlemen don't even know there are past repeated actions, present repeated actions, and future repeated actions. They entail different tenses.

Nothing escapes from time. No "meaning" can ever explain tense.

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To MrPedantic's example "2. I get up. I brush my teeth. I have my breakfast. Then the phone rings. It's my stalker, calling from the phone box outside...", Riverkid wrote:

Originally Posted by riverkid

Absolutely, one of the jobs of the present simple, relating a past story to make it seems more alive, but this still doesn't mean, "I'm doing it right now".

My reply: Can't you gentlemen see it is from the paragraph that one sees it is anecdote or story?

Would you see it is anecdote or story just by Simple Present, as in the following ONE sentence?
Ex: I brush my teeth.
When you put sentences together, you use tenses correctly. But the bad thing is, you usually don't put them together. This explains why you can write English but cannot explain tense on one-sentence basis. You haven't known exactly where the difficulty is, as you have admitted:

Originally Posted by riverkid

Language isn't simply cold grammar rules. Those rules are used to give to language differing meanings, often deep nuances.

Originally Posted by riverkid

This is why language so baffles us. We know how to produce these nuances, the ones that escape ESLs, but we just don't know how to describe them.
Language really is rocket science.