Present simple tense in English

The present simple tense in English is used for routines, habits, general actions and feelings. 

How to form the present simple tense?

How the present simple tense is formed, depends on whether the sentence is:

1. Affirmative: expresses the truth of a certain assertion.
2. Negative: expresses the falsity of a certain assertion. 
3. Interrogative: expresses a question.

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1. Affirmatives 

Structure: subject / pronoun + conjugated verb + rest of the sentence

Examples:

• He is a doctor. 
• We play tennis once a week. 
• The table is round. 

2. Negatives 

Structure: subject / pronoun + auxiliary (form of to do + not) + verb + rest of the sentence.

The table below shows how the auxiliary is formed for every subject. 

The auxiliary forms are often contracted:

• do not - don't
• does not - doesn't 

Examples: 

• I do not eat fish.
• They do not play football. 
• He does not speak English. 

3. Interrogatives

Structure: auxiliary (form of to do) + subject / pronoun + infinitive verb + rest of the sentence + question mark 

Examples:

• Does she like meat? 
• Do you know what to do?
• Do they come to the party?

Usage of the English present simple tense

The table below shows you all the situations in which the English present simple tense is used.

You can recognize the use of the present simple tense when the sentence contains words as:

• Today
• Usually
• Always
• Habitually 
• Now 
• Never 
• On Mondays, Tuesdays etc. 
• Every Monday, Tuesday etc.
• Twice a week 
• Once a month 
• In general 
• Every other day

Conjugation of the English present simple tense 

In the present simple the root is used to form the present simple. The third person singular (he, she, it) forms an exception: '-s', '-es' or '-ies' is added to the stem to form the present simple. Keep the following rules in mind when forming the third person singular of the present simple tense:

Verbs that end in '-s', '-ss', '-sh', '-ch', '-x' or '-o' 

Add '-es' to the root of the verb to form the third person singular.

Verbs that end in '-y' after a consonant

For the third person singular the '-y' changes in '-i' and '-es' has to be added to the root. 

Other verbs

To form the third person singular of the other verbs, '-s' has to be added to the root. The table below shows the conjugation of the regular verbs 'to work', 'to sleep', 'to rush' and 'to study' in the present simple.

Irregular verbs in present simple

The table below shows the conjugation of the irregular verbs 'to swim', 'to feel', 'to have' and 'to be'.

Practice your knowledge with the present simple exercises below!