Present tense refers to the time, ‘now’

A. Simple Present Tense

Formation: Simple present tense is the root verb or the basic verb. It is also called the infinitive. Example:- walk, read, work etc.

Singular: I work, You work, He/she/it works.

Plural: We work, You work, They work.

Negative: Negatives are formed by adding te verb 'to do'+not to the verb.

Example:- I do not work, You do not work, He/she/it does not work, We do not work, You do not work, They do not work

Interrogatives: Interrogatives or question in simple present tense are formed by using the verb 'to do' at the beginning of the question.

Example:- Do I work ?, Does he/she work ?, Do you work ?, Do they work ?

Use of Simple Present Tense

Simple oresent tense is used in different ways.

1. To express the present habits.

Examples:- The city buses stop here, He sleeps early and gets up early, She jogs in the morning, We do shopping on Saturdays.

2. To tell the truths and facts.

Examples:-The sun rises in the east., Magnet attracts iron, They learn French.

3.To refer abilities

Examples:- Joh plays the guitar well, She cooks Chinese food.

4. In 'if' and 'time' clauses to express the idea of future

Examples:- If he comes, I will go with him, Hewill post the letter when he goes to town.

5. To express planned future action.

Examples:-They leave for New York next week, Mary takes the driving test next month.

6. To refer to a deliberate action by using with 'always'

Examples:-He always washes the car, himself (he avoids others deliberately), They always buy fresh vegitables (they deliberately avoid treated ones)

B. Present Continuous Tense:

Present continuous tense also known as real present tense.

Formation: Present continuous tense is formed by adding 'ing' to the infinitive along with the corresponding 'be' verb.

Examples:-am/is/are +ing

I am working, You are working, She is working, We are working, He is working, They are working.

Use of Present Continuous Tense

All continuous tenses refer to an action in progress. So present continuous tense tell of an action in progress 'now'.

a. It refers to an action that is going on.

Examples:-They are sleeping. This means that their sleep is in progress or is continuing.

Children are eating-The eating is going on; not over.

b. It refers to an immediate future.

Examples:- I am going to a party tonight, The president is meeting the deligation this afternoon.

c. It refers to an action happening at present, may not be 'now'

Examples:- We are learning English ( not necesserily at the time of speaking), They are building a house.

d. It refers to un intentional actions or accidents, which annoy the speaker.

Examples:- He is always making that mistake, I am always writing capital 'i' in the middle of sentences.

C. Simple Present Perfect Tense.

Formation: Present perfect tense is formed by adding 'to have' verb to the past participle. Have/has + past participle.

Examples:- He has gone on leave, They have returned the books.

Meaning: Simple present perfect tense is used to refer to an action that is perfected or completed by 'now'. It simply says that some action is complete at the time of speaking. It does not say when the action was completed. The speaker is interested only in saying that the action is over.

Examples:- I have done the assignment. This means that the doing of the assignment is completed at the time of speaking.

Use of Simple Present Perfect Tense.

a. Since it is a present tense, a past time cannot be used along with it.

Examples:-It is wrong to say, 'I have done the assignment yesterday.' But say, We have worked, I have done the assignment, etc.

b. The difference between,  'has/have gone' and 'has/have been'

He has gone to town. This means that he is not here now. He is not back from the town.

He has been to town. This means that he is back from the town and so is  here.

c. It is used for a past action when the time is not mentioned.

Examples:-I have read the book, but I can not remember the name of the author.

d. Present Perfect Tense is used with 'already', 'lately', 'recently', 'yet' etc.

Examples:-Boys have already cleaned the room, He has recently visited the water-falls.

D. Present Perfect Continuous Tense.

Formation: The present perfect continuous tense is formed by adding the 'have' verb and 'been' to the to the present participle of the given verb. That is, has/have + been +verb 'ing'

Examples:-He has been reading; have been working etc,

He has been reading the book.

Meaning: Present perfect continuous tense is used to express that an action began in the past is still continuing at the time of speaking. That is, an action started in the past is still going on and is not over.

Examples:-We have been reading since morning, We have been paiting the house for the last two days.

Uses Of  Present Perfect Continuous Tense.

a. In certain cases, both the present perfect and the present perfect continuous tenses have the same meaning; an action started in the past is still continuoing.

Examples:- He has lived here since 1980, He has been living here since 1980.

b. A repeated action is better expressed in present perfect continuous tense.

Examples:-It is better to say: We have been repairing chairs since morning; than- We have repaired chairs since morning.

Use of 'Since' and 'For'

Both the words, 'since' and 'for' are used with present perfect tenses.

Since: 'Since' is used to indicate a period from a definite time in the past till 'now'. So we use a definite past time, with 'since'.

For: 'For' is used to indicate a period of time ending 'now'

Examples:- He has worked since 1980, He has worked for ten years.

Now we have almost covere Present Tense section here. Please wait for my article teaching you about Past Tense soon.




Written by
Muzi Jurabi
Never explain any thing about you, Because the person who likes you never need it, And the person who hates you never believe it.
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