The present simple tense is the most basic and common tense in the English language. It has many different uses, including future, but we will only talk about one use in this lesson. We commonly use the present simple tense to indicate that an activity is a habit or a routine. Things that we do every day, our daily activities, are routine activities, so we use a combination of the present simple tense and a frequency adverb to clearly describe how often the activity occurs.
Examples:
We leave for work at 6:30 every morning.
He eats rice for breakfast every day.
I sometimes play basketball after school.
They never go to the cinema on a weeknight.
Examples:
We leave for work at 6:30 every morning.
He eats rice for breakfast every day.
I sometimes play basketball after school.
They never go to the cinema on a weeknight.
The form of the present simple tense changes according to the subject being used.
Example: ‘to play’: I sometimes play basketball after school.
He/She never plays basketball.
They/We frequently play basketball together.
Example: ‘to play’: I sometimes play basketball after school.
He/She never plays basketball.
They/We frequently play basketball together.
It’s very important that we pronounce the third person singular ‘s’ whenever we use it. This is one of the most frequent mistakes that learners of English make when they speak – forgetting to add the ‘s’ on the verbs when talking about he/she/it.
To form the negative and questions of the present simple tense, we add the auxiliary verb do/does. Singular subjects (he/she/it) use ‘does’ and plural subjects (they/we) plus first person ‘I’ use ‘do’.
To form the negative and questions of the present simple tense, we add the auxiliary verb do/does. Singular subjects (he/she/it) use ‘does’ and plural subjects (they/we) plus first person ‘I’ use ‘do’.
Example: ‘to eat’:
I don’t normally eat red meat # Do you normally eat red meta?
He/She doesn’t usually eat breakfast # Does he/she usually eat breakfast?
They/We sometimes don’t have time for lunch # Do they have time for lunch?
I don’t normally eat red meat # Do you normally eat red meta?
He/She doesn’t usually eat breakfast # Does he/she usually eat breakfast?
They/We sometimes don’t have time for lunch # Do they have time for lunch?
Common Mistakes:
- She not have breakfast every morning: Remember to add do/does for negative sentences.
- He work every day: Third person singular verbs need an ‘s’/ ‘es’.
- Does your sister jogs every Saturday?: When using do/does, the main verb stays in the base form.
- She not have breakfast every morning: Remember to add do/does for negative sentences.
- He work every day: Third person singular verbs need an ‘s’/ ‘es’.
- Does your sister jogs every Saturday?: When using do/does, the main verb stays in the base form.
We can use ‘do/does’ in front of the main verb in positive sentences when we want to emphasize the activity.
Examples: She does write home once a week. *emphasizing write*
They do visit the city sometimes. *emphasizing visit*
This is a good way to stress that the activity does occur.
Examples: She does write home once a week. *emphasizing write*
They do visit the city sometimes. *emphasizing visit*
This is a good way to stress that the activity does occur.
To emphasize that an activity does not occur at all, we simply use ‘never’.
Examples: I never wake up before 7am.
He never turns in his homework.
They never come home late.
Examples: I never wake up before 7am.
He never turns in his homework.
They never come home late.
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