Simple Present Tense in English
This verb tense is very important and regularly used in daily conversational English. With a good understanding of the basic English Grammar tenses and grammar rules, both your spoken and your written English will improve. The three major tenses in English are present, past and future and the tense tells us when the action is taking place so it has everything to do with the verb.
What can we use this tense for:
1.Declaring facts.
“My name is Jay.”
“This dog weighs 40 kilogrammes.”
“Birds fly in the sky.”
2.Specifying future actions with a future reference.
“The school bus leaves tomorrow at 10:30 pm.”
“I travel to Korea next weekend.”
“The first one who finishes will be the top of the class.”
3. Designating measurements.
“The shed measures 2 metres by 4 metres.”
“The height of this building is 30 metres.”
“The speedometer shows 120 kilometres hour.”
4. Showing the frequency of actions with a time clause.
“I play chess four times a week.”
“Camilla eats dinner every day.”
“Busses to Cape Town depart twice a week.”
5. The expression of uncertainty (Subjunctive) using words related to: desires, wishes and expectations.
“I hope I get the scholarship.”
“He thinks he has the correct grammar.”
“James wishes he could go to University.”
6. The expression of states which are subject to change:
“I am glad.”
“Pieter is stressed.”
“The child is asleep.”
The present tense can be broken down further into three categories:
1. Simple Present
3. Perfect Present
However, this article will only be dealing with the Simple present tense. Here is a song with a bunch of great examples:
Simple present using the verb ‘to be’:
In simple present the various forms of the irregular verb to be are used. This is a very useful but tricky verb to use in English writing. When building a sentence in English, a verb is always required. The verb “be” is the most important verb to learn in English. ‘’TO BE’’ is used to describe objects, features, locations, etc.
The verb ‘’ TO BE ‘’has three forms in the present; am, is and are;
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Subject to be: |
Sentence examples: |
|
I am |
I am happy. |
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You are |
You are calm. |
|
She is |
She is a happy child. |
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He is |
He is an ESL student. |
|
It is |
It is an English grammar book. |
|
We are |
We are writing English homework. |
|
You are |
You are native English teachers. |
|
They are |
They are in class. |
Using the verb “to be” in the Simple present tense:
1. Positive or Affirmative form: Subject + To be (am / is / are) + …
2. Negative Form: Subject + To be (am / is / are) + not+ …
3. Question Form: To be (am / is / are) + Subject + …
4. Negative Question Form: To be (am / is / are) + not+ Subject + …
Here is a video that covers the verb to be in the Present Simple tense:
The only way to learn the Simple Present tense is to practice using it with the appropriate grammar rules. As this tense is straightforward it would be very useful to use when writing English exercises.
Good Luck with practicing your English Grammar tenses!
