Simple Present Tense

In Simple Present, the action is simply mentioned and there is nothing being said about its completeness. It is used to talk about an action which happens on a regular basis. POSITIVE STATEMENTS

SUBJECT	VERB	REST OF THE SENTENCE
I	study	in Bal Bharti school.
You	study	in Bal Bharti school.
He	studies	in Bal Bharti school.
Mohan	studies	in Bal Bharti school.
The boy	studies	in Bal Bharti school.
She	studies	in Bal Bharti school.
Pooja	studies	in Bal Bharti school.
The girl	studies	in Bal Bharti school.
We	study	in Bal Bharti school.
You	study	in Bal Bharti school.
They	study	in Bal Bharti school.
The children	study	in Bal Bharti school.

Notice how we use ‘study’ for the subjects I, You, We, You and They and we use ‘studies’ for the subjects ‘He’ and ‘She’. NEGATIVE STATEMENTS

SUBJECT	DON’T (DO NOT) / DOESN’T (DOES NOT)	VERB	REST OF THE SENTENCE
I	don’t	play	football.
You	don’t	play	football.
He	doesn’t	play	football.
Mohan	doesn’t	play	football.
The boy	doesn’t	play	football.
She	doesn’t	play	football.
Pooja	doesn’t	play	football.
The girl	doesn’t	play	football.
We	don’t	play	football.
You	don’t	play	football.
They	don’t	play	football.
The men	don’t	play	football.

Notice how we use ‘don’t’ for the subjects I, You, We, You and They and we use ‘doesn’t’ for the subjects ‘He’ and ‘She’. The verb form remains the same for all subjects. INTERROGATIVE STATEMENTS / QUESTIONS

THE SIMPLE PRESENT TENSE IS USED:

To express habits, general truths, repeated actions or unchanging situations, emotions and wishes: I smoke (habit); I work in London (unchanging situation); London is a large city (general truth)
To give instructions or directions: You walk for two hundred meters, then you turn left.
To express fixed arrangements, present or future: Your exam starts at 09.00
To express future time, after some conjunctions: after, when, before, as soon as, until: He’ll give it to you when you come next Saturday.

Be careful! The simple present is not used to express actions happening now.

EXAMPLES

For habits He drinks tea at breakfast. She only eats fish. They watch television regularly.
For repeated actions or events We catch the bus every morning. It rains every afternoon in the hot season. They drive to Monaco every summer.
For general truths Water freezes at zero degrees. The Earth revolves around the Sun. Her mother is Peruvian.

For instructions or directions Open the packet and pour the contents into hot water. You take the No.6 bus to Watney and then the No.10 to Bedford.
For fixed arrangements His mother arrives tomorrow. Our holiday starts on the 26th March
With future constructions She’ll see you before she leaves. We’ll give it to her when she arrives.

FORMING THE SIMPLE PRESENT TENSE: TO THINK

Affirmative	Interrogative	Negative
I think	Do I think?	I do not think
You think	Do you think?	You do not think
He thinks	Does he think?	He does not think
She thinks	Does she think?	She does not think
It thinks	Does it think?	It does not think
We think	Do we think?	We do not think.
They think	Do they think?	They do not think.

NOTES ON THE SIMPLE PRESENT, THIRD PERSON SINGULAR

In the third person singular the verb always ends in -s: he wants, she needs, he gives, she thinks.
Negative and question forms use DOES (= the third person of the auxiliary ‘DO’) + the infinitive of the verb. He wants ice cream. Does he want strawberry? He does not want vanilla.
Verbs ending in -y : the third person changes the -y to -ies: fly –> flies, cry –> cries Exception: if there is a vowel before the –y: play –> plays, pray –> prays
Add -es to verbs ending in:-ss, -x, -sh, -ch: he passes, she catches, he fixes, it pushes

EXAMPLES

He goes to school every morning.
She understands English.
It mixes the sand and the water.
He tries very hard.
She enjoys playing the piano.

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