Present Simple

Today I posted a new video on YouTube you can see it here. Today I gave a very basic outline of using the present simple tense.

In the video I explained that in English we use the present simple to describe three different situations:

1) To say when something (an action) happens again and again, or is a habit.
For example, “Mary gets up at 6 every morning”
This tells us that Mary gets out of bed at 6, this is something she does every day, again and again. However it does not matter how far apart the action is in time, as long as it happens again and again.
So it is also ok to say, “John goes to Spain every year”.
This tells us that once a year John goes to Spain, but it also tells us that John does the action again and again, and this why we use the present simple

2) To say when something is true at this moment.
For example, “That dog is big”, this tells us that the dog is a big dog!

3) To say when something is true for a long time
For example, “They don’t eat meat”, this tells us that at this moment it is true that they don’t eat meat, but it also suggests that a long time ago they did!

When we construct the present simple we have to remember to use the letter “s” or the ending “es” when we use either, he, she or it.

Positive Construction:

I, you, we, they + verb + rest of your sentence.
You read the newspaper everyday.

He, She it + verb + s + rest of your sentence.
She reads the newspaper everyday

Negative Construction:

I, you, we, they + don’t + verb + rest of your sentence
I don’t drink wine

He, she, it + doesn’t + verb + rest of your sentence
The car doesn’t run on diesel

Question Construction

Question word + do + I, we, you, they + rest of your sentence + ?
When do they leave the office?

Question word + does + he, she, it + rest of your sentence + ?
Why does Mary have John’s car?

Don’t worry about too much about adding “s” “es” or ”ies” because the rules are very easy:

Put “s” at the end of most verbs
Thinks, eats, speaks

Put “es” at the end of verbs that end in “ss” “ch”, “x” and “o”
Kisses, Washes, Does

Put “ies” at the end of verbs that a consonant + y
Carries, Worries

We use adverbs of frequency in present simple too!
Never Sometimes Always

I hope this gives some extra information to the short video clip on Youtube.

For more information check out my website by clicking here, or going to http://www.smartlanguagesolutions.com/