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I came across two sentences like below when I read news.

"I will not be giving Donald Trump a chance"

"I won't be giving a little reset button like Hillary"

Both sentences were related to Donald Trump and the latter sentence came out from Donald Trump himself.

Because I'm beginner of English, I don't understand why 'will not be giving' is used in here. It seems to me that 'I will not give' is enough and Ok.

Is there any particular reason to use 'I will not be giving' and is there any subtle difference?

I would be appreciated if someone explain it.

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  • President-elect Trump is casually elliptical and allusive in his speech. The "reset button" is the figurative name used during the Obama administration for diplomatic attempts to get the relationship between Russia and the US back on track. Mr Trump is deprecating the Obama administration's efforts in that regard. The verb giving is casual and somewhat sloppy for "My efforts (in that regard) will be much more substantial". He is referring to the effort he will give.
    – TimR
    Commented Jan 12, 2017 at 13:28

1 Answer 1

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It's not a particularly significant choice, but using the continuous form adds a stronger nuance of "immediacy". That's to say the temporal frame suggested by such statements tends to include the present as well as the future. If we contrast them...

1a: I will not be giving Donald Trump a chance.
1b: I will not give Donald Trump a chance.

2a: I won't be giving a little reset button like Hillary
2b: I won't give a little reset button like Hillary

...then in #1a it's more a matter of the speaker telling us what her position is in relation to Trump, whereas in #1b she's talking about what she will or won't do in the future.

Even more specifically, in #2a Trump is bringing up something Clinton is doing right now, as opposed to #2b ...like Hillary [did, in the past].

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