>>"I say" would only be used to state that that is something you say frequently, or hold true ("I say this to him every day"), or, in old films, to attract somebody's attention, as in "I say, can you tell me the way to the station?", but no one would use that nowadays.
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>>So, in a sense, when using a verb without the "ing", it suggests something that's done over a long time, or frequently, but not right at this moment.
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>>e.g. "I kill people" suggests you're a mass murderer. "I am killing people" suggests you've the cleaver in your hand and bodies all around you.
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>>"I walk to work" (never use a car or bus). "I'm walking to work" (I'm on my way now, or am about to)
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>That much is clear - it's the past tenses where I have a problem.

Well give me an example of whjat puzzles you and I'll see if I can enlighten you. You've one of the best commands of English on the whole UT! :-)

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>>>It was called gerund when I was learning English. Has anything changed?
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>>You never mentioned it during the discussion - merely, I think, criticised the fact that we have to rely on them. Strangely enough, although I went to a grammar school, and did Latin (but only for 2 years) I never came across the expression until I was watching "Goodbye Mr Chips" :-)
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>I also finished a gymnasium (as it's called on the Continent), and had two years of Latin. The professor probably said it was called a gerund (actually there were more of them, derived from the verb in various tenses, or I may be mistaken - it was 35 years ago), but I remember meeting the word while learning English, which happened before that.

There's the verb used as an adjectival clause, a gerundive, e.g. amo, ams, amat - amanda: he/she who must be loved - a weird one!

BTW, I've only just realised what your sig's all about. In the US paper money is called "bilols" - in the UK they're called "notes", so the joke (sounds like a grouchoism) was lost on me.