Learn Present Simple Tense | English Grammar Course 1

Hi, everybody.

My name is Esther.

I'm so excited to teach you the present simple tense in today's video.

Now this lesson can be a little difficult,

so I'll do my best to keep it easy and fun for you.

My goal is for you to understand how and when to use this grammar by the end of the video.

Let's get started.

Let's start with the first usage for the present simple tense.

The first usage is pretty easy.

We use it to talk about facts, truths, and generalizations.

Let's look at some examples.

‘The Sun is bright.’

Now that's a fact.

It doesn't change.

Everybody knows that the Sun is bright.

It was bright yesterday.

It's bright today.

And it will be bright tomorrow.

That makes it a fact.

‘Pigs don't fly.’

That's also a fact.

Everybody knows that pigs don't fly.

‘Cats are better than dogs.’

Now this you may not agree with.

This is my truth.

I'm making a generalization about cats and dogs in this example.

And finally, ‘It's cold in winter.’

This really depends on where you live, but for a lot of people, or let's say for

most people, it is cold in the winter,

so that's the truth for some people.

Now let's look back and see what verb I used in the present simple tense.

For the first sentence, we have ‘is’.

I use the ‘be’ verb ‘is’ to talk about the Sun.

In the next sentence, I use the negative of do - ‘do not’

And you'll notice I use the contraction and put these two words together to make it ‘don't’.

‘Cats are better than dogs.’

I use the ‘be’ verb "are" to talk about cats because ‘cats’ is plural.

And finally, it's cold and winter.

Here I use the ‘be’ verb "is" again,

but I use the contraction to combine ‘it’ and ‘is’

and made ‘it's’.

Let's move on to the next usage.

We also use the present simple tense to talk about habits and routines.

So things and actions that happen regularly.

Let's look at the examples.

‘I always eat lunch at noon.’

You'll notice I use the adverb ‘always’ because I'm talking about something that I do regularly.

What is that?

‘Eat lunch at noon.’

So I use the present simple tense.

And here I use the verb ‘eat’.

‘I eat…’

The second example says you play games every day.

Do you see the clue that helps you know that this is something that happens regularly?

It's ‘every day’.

So it's something that happens as a routine or a habit,

so you play games.

The verb here is ‘play’.

‘You play…’

The next example says ‘Seth starts work at 9:00 a.m. daily.’

Again this is something that happens regularly.

‘Seth goes to work at 9:00 a.m.’ every day.

Now you'll notice I put a blue line under the ‘s’ in ‘starts’.

Can you figure out why?

Well remember that when the subject of a sentence is ‘he’, ‘she’, or ‘it’,

we need to add an ‘s’ or ‘es’ to the end of the verb in the present simple tense.

Seth is a ‘he’, so we need to add an ‘s’.

‘Seth starts work at 9:00 a.m. daily.’

And the last example: ‘They study English every Monday.’

Again, ‘every Monday’ means that they do it regularly,

and that's why we use the present simple tense.

‘They study…’.

So as a review, remember we use the present simple tense

to talk about habits and routines that happen regularly.

Let's move on.

We also use the present simple tense with non-continuous verbs.

These are verbs that we don't use in the continuous form,

even if they're happening right now.

They're also called stative verbs.

These are connected with thoughts, opinions, feelings, emotions, and our five senses.

Let's look at these examples.

‘I love my mom.’

The verb here is ‘love’.

That's an emotion, so I use the present simple tense.

‘It smells good.’

‘Smell’ is one of the five senses, so I use the present simple tense.

You'll notice I underlined the ‘s’ because remember the subject is ‘it’.

‘Kelly feels happy.’

This is talking about a feeling.

Again the subject here is ‘Kelly’ which is a ‘she’,

so I added an ‘s’ to the verb.

And finally, ‘They need help.’

We don't say, ‘they are needing help’ even though it's happening right now.

‘Need’ is non-continuous, so we say, ‘they need help’,

so remember you also use the present simple tense with non-continuous verbs,

connected with thoughts, opinions, feelings, emotions, and our five senses.

Let's move on.

Speakers occasionally use the present simple tense to talk about something that will happen

in the near future.

Now this can be a little confusing, but we're not using the future tense,

we're using the present simple tense.

It's possible to do that and it's actually common for people to do that.

Again, for something that will happen in the near future.

Let's look at the examples.

‘I have class at 6 p.m.’

‘6 p.m.’ that's pretty soon, so I can say,

'I have class.' - the present simple tense.

‘Lisa arrives on Sunday.’

Again the near future, ‘Sunday’.

So I use the present simple tense.

I added an ‘s’ at the end of arrive, because Lisa, the subject, is a ‘she’.

‘We start work soon.’

Again, the near future, ‘soon’,

so I use the present simple verb ‘start’.

And finally, ‘My students come tomorrow.’

This is something that will happen in the near future,

so I use the verb ‘come’.

So remember it is possible, and it is common to use the present simple tense

to talk about something that will happen in the near future.

Let's go to the next usage.

Let's talk about a possible negative usage for the present simple tense,

and that is ‘do not’ and ‘does not’.

The first example says, ‘Mike eats bread.’

I put an ‘s’ at the end of ‘eat’ because the subject is Mike which is a ‘he’.

Now that's not a negative statement.

What happens when I want to turn it into a negative statement?

Well I change it like this - ‘Mike doesn't eat bread.’

So you'll notice that I didn't move the ‘s’ here, okay.

Instead I added ‘doesn't’.

I took ‘does’ and ‘not’ and I turned it into a contraction by combining the two

and making it ‘doesn't’.

So if the subject is ‘he’, ‘she’, or ‘it’,

we use ‘does not’ or ‘doesn't’ to make it negative.

‘You swim well.’

In this case, I don't need to put an ‘s’ at the end of ‘swim’ because the subject is ‘you’.

If I want to make this sentence negative, I use ‘don't’.

‘You don't swim well.’

I use the contraction for ‘do’ and ‘not’.

I combine them to make ‘don't’,

so if the subject is ‘I’, ‘you’, ‘we’, or ‘they’, we use ‘do not’ or ‘don't’.

So to review ‘do not’ and ‘does not’ or ‘don't’ and ‘doesn't’

is a possible usage for the negative for present simple tense.

Let's continue on.

Now I'll talk about one possible question form for the present simple tense

and that is by using ‘do’ or ‘does’.

So let's look at the example, ‘They live here.’

That's not a question, right?

'They live here’

In order to turn it into a question, it's really simple.

All I have to do is add ‘do’ to the beginning and add a question mark at the end.

‘Do they live here?’

So if the subject is ‘I’, ‘you’, ‘we’, or ‘they’,

simply add ‘do’ to the beginning of the question.

How about this one, ‘He plays soccer.’

In this statement, the subject is ‘he’ and that's why you should know by now,

I have an ‘s’ at the end of ‘play’.

However, to turn this into a question, I add ‘does’ at the beginning.

‘Does he play soccer?’

What you'll notice here is that I no longer have the ‘s’ at the end of play.

Instead I just used ‘does’ at the beginning,

so for ‘he’, ‘she’, or ‘it’, put ‘does’ at the beginning,

and don't worry about putting an ‘s’ or ‘es’ at the end of the verb.

So to review, one possible way of forming a question for the present simple tense is

using ‘do’ or ‘does’ at the beginning.

Alright let's move on.

Good job guys.

You put in a lot of practice today.

The present simple tense is not easy,

and I'm really happy to see how hard you guys worked on mastering it.

Be sure to check out my other videos and thank you for watching this video.

I'll see you next time.

Bye.