Study materials
These sentences have no hint of this very second in them.
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.
There are three typical cases. A habit is something a person does regularly. A fact is always true, today or a year from now. A timetable shows what happens on a schedule.
I drink tea every morning.
Bees make honey.
The shop closes at eight.
So I swim on Tuesdays does not mean the person is in the pool right now. For what is happening this minute there is another tense, the Present Continuous. It is the next topic.
The s ending in the third person
The verb hardly changes here. It changes only with he, she and it, which add an s.
I work. They live here.
He works. She lives here.
He, she and it are called the third person singular. That also covers any one person, animal or thing, such as Marko, my aunt, our cat or the bus. It in sentences about the weather takes the s too.
Our dog loves snow.
It snows a lot in the Carpathians in winter.
When there are several people or things, that is they, and no s is needed. I, you and we stay without an s as well.
My grandparents live in a village.
You sing really well.
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, does |
| consonant plus y | study becomes studies |
| vowel plus y | play becomes plays, buy becomes buys |
| a special case | have becomes has |
How to make negatives and questions
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?
Do and does are called helpers, or auxiliary verbs. Here they mean nothing by themselves and only build the negative or the question. The verb after them is in its base form, the way it appears in a dictionary, with no s. That is why even has turns back into have after doesn't.
My sister doesn't have a phone.
A question word goes first, and the order after it is unchanged: Where do you live?
Choose the question word by what you want to find out. What time asks about the hour, and how often asks how frequently something happens. Sometimes do appears twice in a question. The first do is the helper, and the second one means to do.
What time does the lesson start?
How often do you call your mum?
What do you do?
A short answer repeats only the helper, never the main verb. Yes, I like sounds cut off to an English ear.
Do you eat sushi? Yes, I do.
Does your brother drive? No, he doesn't.
With the verb be no helper is needed, because be builds negatives and questions on its own.
Does he be tired? → Is he tired?
Be has the forms am, is and are. It is used to say what something is like or where it is, not what it does. In a negative not goes straight after be, and in a question be moves to the front.
The coffee isn't sweet.
Is your school far?
It works the other way too. Be does not go with an action, so the negative of I like is I don't like, not I am not like.
I am not like spiders. → I don't like spiders.
Where frequency words go
This tense almost always travels with words about regularity: every day, on Mondays, usually, often, sometimes, never.
They go before an ordinary verb, but after a form of be.
I usually walk to work.
She never drinks coffee.
He is often late.
Always, usually, often, sometimes and never are called adverbs of frequency, because they show how often something happens. Never already means not ever, so it is never paired with doesn't or don't. The verb after never still takes the s in the third person singular.
My brother never cleans his room.
Longer time phrases like every weekend or on Mondays usually go at the end of the sentence, after everything else.
I see my friends every weekend.
Common mistakes
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.
The first two are caught by one habit. Once you spot he, she or it, check where the s belongs. With no helper it sits on the verb, and with does it moves to the helper. The third shows in the frequency word, which goes before an ordinary verb but after is, am or are.