Rule of thumb for "temporary" and "permanent"

Question

We use the present simple to talk about permanent facts and general truths. In this example we don’t expect the situation to change.

She lives with her parents.

We use the present continuous to talk about something temporary. In this example we do expect the situation to change.

She’s living with her parents.

For me it is not always clear when I should consider situation as permanent. Let's say for example that I want to ask Ellie a question about school.

What foreign language do you learn at school?

or

What foreign language are you learning at school?

On the one hand, I do not expect the situation to change in the near future. On the other hand, I understand that sooner or later Ellie will finish school, so the situation is clearly not permanent. Moreover, the question of what is the near future is quite philosophical. Is it a month, six months, a year or ten years? This also makes it difficult to make the right choice.

I understand that native speakers make a choice without really thinking about such things. I'm wondering what rule of thumb they use.

Answer 1

The difference is "forever" or "indefinitely" versus "for some defined period of time".

Like, "Newton's Laws describe the motion of objects." I expect those laws to be true forever.

Sure, in practice, most things don't really last "forever". But some things will continue for an undefined period of time. There is no plan or expectation that they will change.

So for example, "My school teaches French and Spanish" versus "I am studying French and Spanish". In the first case, the school teaches these subjects and it will continue to teach them indefinitely. In the second case, I expect to graduate within a few years and so I will no longer be studying these languages.

Of course one could say that the school won't remain in operation literally forever. Sooner or later the school will be closed for one reason or another. Or even if it stays in operation, it may change what classes it teaches. But the point is that we expect it to keep teaching these same classes indefinitely.

Yes, there are debatable cases. Like, "Fred lives in Chicago." There is no guarantee that Fred won't move to another city some day. Even if he doesn't, he's going to die sooner or later so will no longer "live" anywhere. But if Fred has no plans to move any time soon, we'd use the simple present. If he's just living in Chicago temporarily until he gets a job or graduates from school or some other expected event, then we'd say, "Fred is living in Chicago."

So it's not a matter of 1 years versus 2 years or any specific numbers. It's more like, There's no reason to expect a change versus There is a reason to expect a change. Whether the "reason" here is the laws of nature, a human being's intentions, or something else, depends on context. Likewise, in context "indefinitely" could mean "for at least a few hours" or "for thousands of years".