doing or do

Here there is little practical difference in the meaning (except for the greater instantaneousness of 'at the moment' over 'right now').

The continuous tense tends to emphasize the ongoing experience of the activity (or non-activity, in this case), while the simple tenses tend to state the end fact of the situation-- from the speaker's viewpoint.

Continuous tenses can also indicating increased interest, concern, or courtesy ('Will you be having wine with your dinner?'), but I don't think that is applicable here.

the first version is slightly more English and the second is slight more USA I feel


ding dong is a slang and a bit dated now? It isn't a phrase I would use anyway

Yeah, I would use the first but the second sounds a bit odd to me.

You are right, but what phrase would you use to express the same meaning?

They've had an argument and aren't talking to each other at the moment.

What do these two sentences emphasize?

CalamityJane, thank you, but I have known the word "arguement". What I wanted to know was the slang.Sorry for my poor English.

Stuh505, thank you too.
I shouldn't have made such a stupid mistake.

thinking hard ..... will return

You want some slang?

They've had:-

a beef, a dust-up, a bust-up, a set-to, a tiff (if they were lovers or married),

"a lovers' tiff" is a very common phrase NOTE the postion of the apostrophe at the end of the word "lovers" - the posessive apostrophe goes at the end of words which end in the letter s eg "In Jesus' name". Although many native English speakers do not know this.

A row, pronounced to rhyme with 'how' is common, but it is not exactly slang. Also, they 'fell out', so they had a falling out.

Thank you,contrex.