Study materials
Here is a sentence with no hint of this very second in it.
I walk to work every day.
The lesson starts at nine.
The Present Simple talks not about a moment but about what is true in general: a habit, a timetable, a fact. Right now you may be sitting at home, and the sentence does not become false.
One ending for the whole topic
The verb hardly changes here. There is one exception: he, she and it add an s.
I work. They live here.
He works. She lives here.
Sometimes that s shifts the spelling a little, and the rules are the same as for plural nouns.
| When | What comes out |
|---|---|
| after s, sh, ch, x, o | watches, finishes, goes |
| consonant plus y | study becomes studies |
| vowel plus y | play becomes plays |
| a special case | have becomes has |
Do and does take the ending for themselves
A helper appears in negatives and questions. It takes on both the meaning and that same s, so the main verb goes back to its base form.
They don't work here.
He doesn't work here.
Does she work here?
A question word goes first, and the order after it is unchanged: Where do you live? The short answer repeats the helper: Yes, I do. No, he doesn't.
One important warning. With the verb be no helper is needed: it copes on its own.
Does he be tired? → Is he tired?
Frequency words and where they live
This tense almost always travels with words about regularity: every day, on Mondays, usually, often, sometimes, never.
They have their own slot in the sentence. Before an ordinary verb, but after a form of be.
I usually walk to work.
She never drinks coffee.
He is often late.
The mistakes everyone makes
The first is losing the ending in the third person.
She work in a bank. → She works in a bank.
The second is keeping the ending where does is already there.
Does he plays tennis? → Does he play tennis?
The third is putting a frequency word in the wrong slot.
She drinks never coffee. → She never drinks coffee.
All three are caught by one habit. Once you spot he, she or it in a sentence, check where the s belongs: on the verb, or already on the helper.
Try it right now
Describe your ordinary day in English: three sentences about what you do daily and one about what you never do.
Then say one sentence about someone close to you. If an s appeared in it, the topic is done.