Present tense simple vs. continuous

Hi everybody,

I am wondering why it is possible to write in a business letter, e.g.:

a) I enclose a brochure of our full range of products (read this many times in sample letters)

but it sounds very odd to say something like

b) As the invoice amount is incorrect, we return the invoice to you.

I would actually write we are returning or we will return in this case.

I can justify the use of the continuous in sentence b) (we are doing it now) but I can't find any explanation for the use of the simple form in sentence a) although I've read this sentence quite often and it doesn't bother me

This is just my gut feeling though and I have no explanation whatsoever why sentence a) seems to be correct while sentence b) doesn't ...

Anybody got an idea?

TiA

Sonja

Hi Inchoateknowledge,

Thanks for your suggestion. Not sure whether this applies here though.

I think for the certainty of a future event to be expressed in present tense you would need a sentence like:

The train leaves at four o'clock or

Easter Sunday is (will be) on March 29th

Thanks

Sonja

Hi Sonja, and welcome to the forums. I answered with this in the other post you made on the same topic. For future reference, if you ever forget to sign on and make a post, you just have a wait a bit for it to appear. Please don't sign in and then post the same question, or you'll have different people answering the same question in different threads, like what happened here. (Meanwhile, I'm deleting the other, anonymous thread on the same question.)

Anyway, here's what I said before I knew anyone else had already answered:

Hi Sonja, My gut feeling is the same as yours. I have written many, many business letters using U.S.-style, and I would write "I am enclosing" and "We are returning." The only exception would be when you are explaining an on-going process, but not the immediate action that is the purpose of the letter.

Philip wrote:

Sonja_muc wrote: Hi everybody, I am wondering why it is possible to write in a business letter, e.g.: a) I enclose a brochure of our full range of products (read this many times in sample letters)"I am enclosing" is standard verbage. but it sounds very odd to say something like b) As the invoice amount is incorrect, we return the invoice to you. I would actually write we are returning or we will return in this case. Correct! I can justify the use of the continuous in sentence b) (we are doing it now) but I can't find any explanation for the use of the simple form in sentence a) although I've read this sentence quite often and it doesn't bother me This is just my gut feeling though and I have no explanation whatsoever why sentence a) seems to be correct while sentence b) doesn't ... Anybody got an idea? TiA Sonja