English tenses review

how to achieve grammar success

PRESENT TENSES
Present simple
the most common and the simpliest tense in English

How to create a sentence in present simple tense? All we need to know is a verb is base form (infinitive without to, basic word from dictionary), e.g. sleep, go, walk, eat, brush, sing, teach, learn !NOW! we can form a simple sentence in present simple tense: I sleep, I go, I walk, I eat, I brush, I sing, I teach, I learn, etc. In the third person singular we need to add -s / -es ending:

he she it

learns, watches, sleeps drinks, brushes, goes, sings, plays, works

! Should I use s or es?? !

It depends on the e n d i n g letter of the verb in base form. When the word ends with:

-s, -sh, -ch, -x

we have to add es ending.
brush, watch, wash, vanish, mix, miss, cross

!NOW! we can form a simple sentence in the third person singular in present simple tense: he sleeps, she works, it rains, he goes, she drinks, etc. NEGATIVE A little more complicated business is negative in present simple tense. We need to use two small words auxiliary verb DO - and not (in Czech called zporka).

We have to put these two words BEFORE verb in the base form: do not go, do not sleep, etc. These words have short form: dont dont go, dont sleep he she it doesnt sleep, doesnt go doesnt learn, doesnt play, doesnt watch

! What about the 3rd person? !

There is also a little change in auxiliary verb in the third person singular! Instead of DO we have to use DOES NOT is the same! And the short form of negative is

!NOW! we can make a bit more complicated sentence in present simple tense. We can make negative sentence: I dont play, he doesnt wash, she doesnt know, we dont sit, etc.

DOESNT

QUESTION Questions are the most problematic part of present simple tense but we need to know how to form them because we use them in any conversation. Although questions are problematic for students, they are not problematic at all Imagine that every word in the guestion is a pearl on the string and we cannot change the position of single pearls. To form a question in present simple tense we use auxiliary verb DO (DOES in the third person singular). Making questions is very simple. We just add DO to the beginning of the sentence (and switch person).

When weve got a sentence in the third person singular, the situation changes a bit: Verb live has ending s in affirmative sentence, but in the question, ending jumps to auxiliary does.

! Why does ending jump? !

The third person singular ending s / -es can be expressed only ONCE.

One is enough! Does Jenny speaks English? Does Jenny speak English?

But when we use verbs BE and HAVE in the present siple tense sentences we dont add auxiliary verb DO into the questions.

Another special type of questions are so-called Wh-questions. These are questions begin with Wh-words: Where? When? Who? What? Which? Why? Whose? How? and everything else is same as in question above. These questions are called doplovac otzky in Czech language. Where is he? Why do you play tennis? When do you leave? Whose are these socks?

There is also another type of Wh-questions. They are called subject question and we are asking about the subject. In Czech, these questions are called podmtn otzky. COMPARE:

ANSWERS: I saw his sister Jane. We are asking about OBJECT. His sister saw me. We are asking about SUBJECT.

When we are asking about other parts of subject, like possessive pronouns or numerals, we use subject questions as well: How many students go there? Whose mother is that?

WHEN DO WE USE PRESENT SIMPLE TENSE? This tense is used in four cases: 1) General truth We want to tell someone the general truth, general facts about something. It doesnt matter if this is happening now: Nurses look after patients in hospitals. The Earth goes around the Sun. Jack is a lawyer. I dont smoke. She comes from Germany.

! It doesnt matter if it is happening now !

Nurses look after patients in hospitals.
It is their job, we are just describing what nurses have to do. Not all nurses in the whole wide world are looking after patients right now.

2) Repeated actions

My friend is looking after my son.

It is important to know, that my friend is not doing it regularly. She is doing it just right in this moment.

Once more it doesnt matter if this is happening now. We are talking about actions which happen several times, e.g. in the same time and in the same day of the week. It is also about actions which we do and it doesnt matter how many times a week, but it is for a longer period. In these sentence we often use expressions like often, always, usually, every morning (evening, month), at the weekends, once a day, twice a week, etc.: I get up at six oclock every weekday. He goes to cinema every weekend.

This sentences are often connected to How often? questions: How often do you go to school? I go to school five times a week. 3) Promises, advices, agreements, apologies It is a bit problematic because we use present simple tense even if we promise/advise/agree in the time of speaking. 4) Timetables We are using present simple tense to express future. Timetables express when certain events are happening but it is happening every day in the same time, again, again and again. This event or action happens regularly in the past, present and future, all the time so we feel it like future only personaly. The train leaves at 7:30 AM from Praha hlavn ndra. The English lesson starts at 8 oclock. The film begins at 10 PM. I agree. I promise I will not do it again. What do you advise me?

Present continuous