English Tenses

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What is the difference in meaning between "He always interrupts people" and "He is always interrupting people"? According to Longman Grammar Guide, one should use the Present Progressive Tense to describe repeated actions, just like the one cited above. The guide does not provide any further information on that, unfortunately. I would appreciate it if some one could be more specific about the contexts in which each of these tenses are to be used properly. Thanks in advance!

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@alexsnapper,

The English tenses can be rather subtle.

1) Let's say you were describing a particular student to an administrator; you might say, "He always interrupts people," when describing his classroom behavior.

2) Now you and the administrator are observing a class in progress. Your attention is drawn to one student in particular and you remark, "He is always interrupting people."

To make it more complicated, either sentence would be understandable in either situation but I believe the preferred use is seen in the provided examples.

English Tenses

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