What Is the Simple Present Tense?

What Is the Simple Present Tense? (with Examples)

The simple present tense is quite simple to form (see spelling rules), but it’s not simple in terms of how it’s used. In fact, it’s quite complicated.

Examples of the Simple Present Tense

The simple present tense is used:

(1) To describe facts and habits:

• I like chocolate. (Fact)
• Angela runs a youth club full of glue-sniffers. (Fact)
• I ride horses in the summer. (Fact and habit)
• It always snows here in January. (Fact and habit)
• Dawn plays chess in the evenings. (Fact and habit)

(NB: These activities do not have to be happening right now.)

This type of sentence, especially if it’s describing a habit, will usually include a time expression like always, every year, never, often, on Mondays, rarely, sometimes, or usually.

(2) To describe scheduled events in the future

• The train gets in at 5 o’clock.
• It is low tide at 0234.

(Yep, I know! It’s supposed to be the present tense!)

(3) To tell stories (particularly jokes) to make your listener or reader feel more engaged with the story.

• A horse walks into a bar, and the barman says, “why the long face?”

(Compare to: A horse walked into a bar, and the barman said, “why the long face?”)

• We heard the helicopter overhead. Suddenly, the radio bursts into life.

(This is sometimes called the fictional present or the historic present.)

The Negative Version

To create a negative sentence, use

“do not” + [base form of the verb].

(Use “does not” with third person singular (he / she / it).) For example:

• I do not like chocolate.
• Angela does not run a youth club full of glue-sniffers.
• I do not ride horses in the summer.
• It does not always snow here in January.
• Dawn does not play chess in the evenings.

In speech and writing (especially informal writing), do not is often shortened to don’t, and does not is often shortened to doesn’t. If you want to add some emphasis, use one of the long versions (i.e., do not or does not), and emphasize the word not.

The Question Version

• Do I like chocolate?
• Does Angela run a youth club full of glue-sniffers?
• Why does it always snow here in January?
• When does Dawn play chess?

Forming the Simple Present Tense

The simple present tense is quite easy to form. Let’s take the verb to run (whose base form is run). In the simple present tense, run looks like this:

In other words, it only changes in the third person singular (he / she / it). It adds either s, es or ies.

The Spelling Rules

For regular verbs, just add s:

• talk > talks
• improve > improves

For verbs that end in s, ss, sh, ch, x and o, add es:

• guess > guesses
• mash > mashes
• fix > fixes
• go > goes

For verbs ending in y, change the y to ies:

• fly > flies
• study > studies

For Other Tenses click the Verb Tenses link below

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AGH / Jan 2020