why is je mange translated as i eat/am eating? surely those are differnt tenses, no?
Nope, French only has one present tense
the present progressive doesn't exist in French (unless you say something like, 'je suis en train de manger....' thus je mange has those dual meanings from the perspective of an English speaker.
Thanx that's clarified it very well. So Je mange can be translated as i am eating/ i eat.