Simple Present Tense

الأربعاء أبريل 14, 2010 10:10 pm

How do we make the Simple Present Tense?

subject		auxiliary verb		main verb
		do		base

There are three
important exceptions:

For positive sentences, we do
not normally use the auxiliary.
For the 3rd person singular
(he, she, it), we add s to the main verb or es to the
auxiliary.
For the verb to be, we do not use an
auxiliary, even for questions and negatives.

Look at these
examples with the main verb like:

Look at these examples with the main verb be. Notice that there
is no auxiliary:

How do we use the Simple Present Tense?

We use the simple
present tense when:

the action is general
the action
happens all the time, or habitually, in the past, present and future
the
action is not only happening now
the statement is always true

John drives a taxi.
past	present	future

It is John's job to drive a taxi. He does it every day. Past, present and future.

Look at these
examples:

I live in New York.
The Moon goes round the
Earth.
John drives a taxi.
He does not drive a bus.
We
do not work at night.
Do you play football?

Note
that with the verb to be, we can also use the simple present
tense for situations that are not general. We can use the simple present
tense to talk about now. Look at these examples of the verb "to
be" in the simple present tense - some of them are general, some
of them are now: