"I study X" or "I'm studying X"?

Tom   Tue Aug 25, 2009 1:41 am GMT
If I'm a student of history at university, should I say "I study history" or "I'm studying history"?
Janek   Tue Aug 25, 2009 2:27 am GMT
As far as I can remember from what my teacher told me ;) Continuous Tense is acceptable in this context. But I think it would be better to add some adverb also, e.g. "My name is XXX. I came from YYY. Last year I finished school and _now_ I'm studying history".
I hope you understand what I mean :)
Best regards.
Original Name   Tue Aug 25, 2009 2:37 am GMT
I would say "studying" if it's something temporary and "study" if it's more of a permanent occupation.
Originaler Name   Tue Aug 25, 2009 5:33 am GMT
I agree with the above, although note that 'temporary' can be quite long. For example, even a four year degree could be 'temporary' in this sense.
Uriel   Wed Aug 26, 2009 6:13 am GMT
It would usually be "I'm studying history" (or if you were at an American university, "I'm majoring in history"), but let the context guide you: if someone asks "What do you study there?" it's perfectly okay to say "I study history." Both question and answer would then have the same verb agreement.
besserwisser   Wed Aug 26, 2009 4:41 pm GMT
In this case, there is no real difference between "I study" and "I'm studying".