Why do we use the simple unaspected present instead of the present tense with the continuous aspect?

Question

I am currently learning English as a non-native speaker.

I wonder why we use simple present instead of present continuous?

For example,

1. I need your help.

2. I am needing your help.

As I have learned, the simple present is used for habits and general things. And as I have heard in the films, they were used I need your help.

And I am wondering, they just need to help in event happening time and why they didn't use I am needing your help sentence?

I am sorry for my bad English.

Answer 1

Habit, sure -- but the idea of habit only makes sense when the verb represents an action. Some verbs don't. If the verb represents a state rather than an action, then the clause does not represent a habit of some action that it also does not have.

The state of "need" does not form a habit. The clause "I need help" does not imply a habit, because there is no action to be made habitual.

And, you'll still need to learn them individually, verb by verb, until you've learned them all. For an ESL student, it's a question of what verbs count as states in English. It's entirely possible that the best translation from some English verb to your native language happens to be an action rather than a state.

Answer 2

I need your help.

This is what you say when you require specific assistance from someone. Usually that is for a present condition (help is needed to clear the dinner table, jump-start a car, etc.). It can be used to express ongoing conditions:

Please don't quit your job. The company needs your skills, more than perhaps you realize.

Now to your other option:

I am needing your help.

This would be a rather mannered way to ask someone for help. It could sound flippant or arch, but it would confuse no one. But it would still most likely be construed to mean that help is needed now or in the near future. To express the durative (continuous) aspect unambituously you would have to add an adverb or some other marker:

I am always needing your help.
I am always in need of your help.
I have always been in need of your help.
I have always needed your help.