Lesson Transcript

Hi, everybody! My name is Alisha.
In this lesson, I’m going to talk about simple present tense in English.
Let’s get started!
Okay. I want to begin this lesson by looking at when to use a simple present tense. There are two points I want to focus on.
Number one, we use simple present tense “to share facts”.
So, “facts” refers to information that is always true.
For example:
“I speak English.”
In this sentence, “speak” is simple present tense.
In this example:
“He works in New York City.”
This is a fact, just information that is true. “Works” is a simple present tense verb.
In one more example:
“They don’t live in France.”
“Don’t live” is simple present tense, but it’s just a negative. They don’t leave in France.
So, these are examples of simple facts. We express facts with simple present tense.
The second use of simple present tense is “to express regular actions”.
So, especially, this is for items in a schedule or a timetable. When I say “schedule” or “timetable”, I mean, for example, something that happens every day at the same time or every week or every month or every year. So, it’s something that we understand happens regularly.
So, for example:
“I visit my parents every month.”
In this sentence, “visit” is a simple present tense verb and we know that this is a regular action because we have this expression in the sentence, “every month”.
In the next example:
“The bus leaves at 3 PM.”
“Leaves” is in simple present tense. This is part of a timetable, “at 3 PM”, so we can understand this is part of a bus schedule.
Finally:
“He doesn’t call me every day.”
Here, again, we have a negative expression. “He doesn’t call” is in simple present tense. It’s a negative expression. And here, we have “every day”, so this shows an action that does not happen every day.
So, these are the two ways to use or the two times to use simple present tense.
Next, I want to talk about how to make simple present tense.
First, let’s look at how to make statements, statements.
I’ve broken this into positive and negative statements.
First, let’s take a look at how to make positive statements.
We need to think about the subject of the sentence. When we’re making basic statements, there are two ways to approach it. If your subject is “I, you, we, or they”, we use this pattern. So, [I/you/we/they] + [our infinitive verb]. So, “infinitive verb” means just the basic form of the verb. There’s no change to the verb, like “eat” or “sleep” or “drink”, just the basic verb form. Then, we can add extra information. So the most basic type of sentence is just a subject and a verb, but in many cases, we want to add some more information. We do this after the verb.
If, however, your subject is “he, she, or it”, we use first the subject, then the infinitive verb, and then, we add an S sound to the verb. So, in most cases, we just change this to add simply an -S. So, infinitive verb plus just an -S. In some cases, we add “-ES” and in some cases, we add “-IES”.
Here is the rule for understanding which type of S ending to use.
We add -ES, this -ES, for verbs ending in double S or -SS, for verbs ending in -O, -SH, -CH, -TCH, -X, and -Z. So, if the infinitive verb ends in one of these, we need to add -ES when our subject is “he, she or it” in a simple present tense statement. If your subject is “I, you, we, or they”, there’s no change to the verb. So, this is kind of a tricky point to keep in mind. This will get easier with practice to remember.
Then, about this point, this -IES ending.
For verbs ending in a consonant, so “consonant” means the letters other, the letters that are not A, E, I, O, and U and sometimes Y, but for verbs ending in [consonant + Y], we remove the Y and we add -IES. So, I’ll show you an example of this, in just a moment. So this is how we make positive statements with simple present tense.
Let’s like, kind of compare this then, to making negative statements, negative statements. When you want to make a negative statement, again, there are two, kind of, patterns to follow. Again, the subject is very important here. So, if your subject is “I, you, we, or they”, we include “don’t” before the infinitive verb. So yes, you can also use “do not”, but in everyday speech, we use this reduced “don’t” typically. So, “do not” sounds a little more stiff, a little bit more formal. We typically use “don’t” in everyday speech. So, “I don’t…” or “You don’t…”, “We don’t…”, “They don’t…” + [infinitive verb]. So again, no change to the verb, and then, in some cases, we add some extra information at the end of the sentence.
The other pattern is the “he, she, or it” subject pattern.
If the subject is “he, she, or it”, we use “doesn’t”, doesn’t. So, “doesn’t” is the reduced form of “does not”. So, “He doesn’t...:”, “She doesn’t…”, “It doesn’t…”, + [infinitive verb], no change here. So, when we make a positive statement, we need to add an S sound to the end of the infinitive verb. When we’re making a negative statement, we do not need to make any changes to the verb, just a plain infinitive verb is perfect, it’s fine, and then, we can add our extra information after the verb.
So, with this information in mind, let’s practice making a few sentences with these examples.
So, our first situation, our first example:
“They (something, something) every day.”
If I want to use the verb “cook” in this expression, what should I do?
First, I need to look at the subject of the sentence, “they”. I’m using “they” in this pattern. This is a positive, I know, because there’s no “not” here, so, I follow this pattern. My pattern when “they” is the subject is just [infinitive verb] + (extra information). So, I know this should be “cook”. “They cook every day.” This is the correct sentence.
The next example:
“She (something, something) reports every month.”
My verb here is “write”, write.
So, I look at my subject. My subject is “she”. I know from my hint this is a positive sentence, so there’s no “not” here. So, I can go here. So “she” is my subject, [infinitive verb] + an S sound, I know that. So, which S ending should I use? My verb here is “write”. It doesn’t end in any of these spellings and it doesn’t end in [consonant + Y], so I know I should use just a simple S ending.
“She writes reports every month” is the correct sentence.
“She writes reports every month.”
All right, onto the next example.
“He (something, something) a car.”
So, here, my clue is “not have”, not have.
So, my clue, my hint here, tells me this should be a negative statement, so I’ll start my search here in the negative section. I see my my sentence, my subject is “he”, so I know I should use this pattern, “he + doesn’t + [infinitive verb]. So again, no change to the verb in a negative statement. That means I can use [doesn’t + have] to make a negative. So, the final sentence becomes, “He doesn’t have a car.”
“He doesn’t have a car.”
All right, one more example.
“She (something) internationally 4 times a year.”
Internationall, so “internationally” means outside her country or outside the place where she lives. So, my verb here is “fly”. I see that this is probably a positive statement because there’s no “not” here. So “fly” and my subject is “she”, okay, so “she + [infinitive verb]. Now, which S pattern should I use? My verb is “fly” and it follows this pattern. So, it’s a verb that ends in [consonant + Y]. So, L is a consonant, [consonant + Y] ending, the rule is to remove Y and add “-IES”, so the correct answer is “flies”.
“She flies internationally 4 times a year.”
So this is how we can find the correct verb form to use, depending on the sentence. So, your subject is very important here.
Okay. With that, let’s continue to making questions. This is about how to make statements with simple present tense. Let’s practice how to make questions with simple present tense. Again, the subject of our sentence is very important.
Let’s take a look at these two to begin.
These are our yes-and-no-type questions. So, when I say “yes-or-no-type question”, I mean the questions we can answer by saying just “yes” or “no”. So, to make yes-or-no questions in simple present tense, we can use this pattern, if our subject is “I, you, we, or they” again. “Do I...”, “Do you...”, “Do we...”, “Do they...” plus our [infinitive verb] + our (extra information). I included here, “do I”. This is kind of a rare pattern, this “do I” because usually, we don’t ask ourselves like yes-or-no questions, but sometimes, if you’re the kind of person who talks to yourself sometimes as many of us are, you might think to yourself a “do I” question, like, “Do I have a meeting today?” like you think out loud. You’re thinking to yourself, you might say it out loud. So, this is kind of a rare pattern, “do I”, but you might use it when you talk to yourself. So, when we make a yes-or-no question, this is the pattern for “I, you, we, and they” subjects.
If, however, your subject is “he, she, or it”, we use “does” to begin the question. “Does he...”, “Does she...”, “Does i...t” + [infintive verb] + (extra information). So again, notice when you’re making a question, you do not need to make a change to the infinitive verb. There’s no S here, there’s no S sound that’s added when you’re making a question. We just need to change the “do” or “does” to match the subject of our question.
So, let’s compare this to a Wh- question.
So, when I say “Wh- question”, I mean “who, what, where, when, why”, those questions. So, when we’re asking these like information questions, we want to get some information, more than just yes or no, these are the patterns we use. Again, subject is important here. So, we use Wh- question like “who, what, where” + do + [your subject - I, you, we, they] + [our infinitive verb] and (our extra information).
If, however, again, our subject is “he, she, or it”, we use Wh- question - who, what, where, does he, [infinitive verb], (extra information).
So, let’s practice these two types of question in these examples.
Let’s begin here. There are two blanks, you’ll notice.
So, “(Something) you (something) here?”
My verb here is “work”, so I know that I need to put something in this one space and since there’s only one space, I can guess it’s probably this pattern. So, this pattern, the information question pattern, requires two words before the subject. So this one, I can guess follows this pattern. My subject is “you”, so I know this part should be “do”, “Do you...” And my verb here is “work”, so “Do you work here?” My infinitive verb does not take any changes in this pattern.
“Do you work here?”
So, you might need to use this if you’re shopping and you find someone, you have a question.
“Do you work here? Can I ask you a question?”
Okay, onto the next one.
“(Something) he (something) in your neighborhood?”
“In your neighborhood”
So, my verb is “live”, live. Again, one space here, my subject is “he”, so I go to this pattern and I have one word before my “he” subject, so I understand this is “does”. “Does he…” My verb is “live”. In this pattern, there’s no change to the infinitive verb.
“Does he live in your neighborhood?”
It’s perfect. “Does he live in your neighborhood?”
Okay, onto the next pair. These two are going to use this Wh- question pattern.
So, “What (something) we (something) for the party?”
My verb is “need”, need.
So, I’ve added this to make it a little easier, easier to understand. “What (something) we…” So here, I have “we”. Where should I look for the pattern that uses “we”? And before “we” is “do”. “What do we…” My infinitive verb takes no change, so “What do we need for the party?” is the correct question.
“What do we need for the party?” at native speed.
One more:
“When (something) he (something) to the office?”
So here, my verb is “go”, go. Again, my subject here is “he”, so I need to look at this pattern. Before “he” is “does” in between my question word and my subject. So, “When does he…” My verb “go” takes no change in this pattern.
“When does he go to the office?”
“When does he go to the office?” at native speed.
Okay. I want to end this lesson with a couple of kind of extra examples. I’ve used this why patterns. So, you might know about this kind of advice pattern, which is using a why question to make a gentle suggestion and this takes kind of interesting pattern. We make this in kind of a special way.
So it’s, “Why (something) you (something) your computer?” in this case.
My verb is “restart”, to restart a computer.
When we make these advice patterns though, we use a negative here. So, we follow the same rule like this, but in this portion, the “do” or “does” portion, we follow this rule right here. We use the same negative words, “don’t” and “doesn’t”. This makes a kind of gentle soft advice or suggestion pattern.
So, in this case, “you” is my subject. We learned over here, when “you” is the subject, the negative is “don’t”, so we place it here. We’ll make the negative “don’t” here.
“Why don’t you…” no change to the verb.
“Why don’t you restart your computer?”
So, this is a suggestion. I’m having computer trouble. Oh no, I don’t know what to do.
“Why don’t you restart your computer?” It’s something your coworker or your friend might say.
Another example of this:
“Why (something) she (something) her schedule?”
And my verb is “change”, change.
So, “she” is my subject. In the positive, it’s “does”. We learned her the negative form is “doesn’t”, doesn’t. So, “Why doesn’t she…” no change.
“Why doesn’t she change her schedule?”
“Why doesn’t she change her schedule? She seems so busy.”
So, these are the different ways we can make questions and advice and giving suggestions with simple present tense. So, this is an introduction to when to use, how to make, and a couple of extra points about simple present tense. I hope that this lesson was helpful for you. Of course, if you have any questions or comments or if you want to practice making sentences or questions with simple present tense, please feel free to do so in the comment section of this video.
Thanks very much for watching this lesson and I will see you again soon. Bye-bye!

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