PRESENT SIMPLE TENSE

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PRESENT SIMPLE TENSE

MEANING

The ‘Present Simple Tense’ is one of the most basic tenses in the English language which uses the base form of the verb (excluding the verb ‘be’).

STRUCTURES

1. POSITIVE SENTENCES

The subject along with the main verb will be called as the present Simple tense.

2. NEGATIVE AND QUESTION SENTENCES

The Subject along with the auxiliary ‘do’ (combined with present simple) with an addition of the main verbs.

EXAMPLES OF SIMPLE PRESENT TENSE

	SUBJECT	AUXILIARY VERB		PRIMARY VERB
For positive sentences	I, we, they, you			drive	car
	He, she, it			drives	car
For negative sentences	I, we, they, you	do	not	drive	car
	He, she, it	does	not	drive	car
For question sentences	Do	I, we, they, you		drive	car
	Does	he,she,it		drive	car?

POINTS TO REMEMBER

For the Positive sentences, there will be an absence of the auxiliary verb. We will also combine the main verb with an addition of ‘s’ to the third singular person.

For the negative and question sentences, the main verb will not be variable in the base form. Also, we will combine the auxiliary verb ‘do’ in the Present Simple such as do, does. We will add the word ‘not’ in between the auxiliary and the main verb. Lastly, in case of the question sentences, we will exchange the auxiliary verb and the main verb.

Usually, in the positive sentence, we do not use the auxiliary verb ‘do’. However , it can be used it we need to stress/focus on something.

For example:

Instead of saying ‘I like your accent’, we can say ‘I do like your accent’. Over here, this is proven how much we like it. Here are some more examples:

You do look handsome today.
I do appreciate that you spoke up.
I do wish that you stay happy.

STATIVE VERBS

For stative verbs, we use the Present Simple to speak about the current time: ‘now’. Stative verbs do not tell about actions, however, they tell about the state and are verbs such as: like, sound, belong to, need, and seem.

For example:

I play basketball.
This seems exciting.
Do you need my support?

The verb ‘be’ is a stative verb which we use in the Present Simple Tense to speak about the current time: ‘now’ as well as the ‘general’ situations. The examples of the verb ‘be’ are given below from which some are ‘general’ and some are ‘now’.