Simple Present Tense

Let's begin learning the tenses with the easiest tense first. The tense that you use to talk about things in the here and now.

SIMPLE PRESENT TENSE

What exactly is simple present tense?

In laymen term, simple present tense is when you talk about something that happens in the present or that happens repeatedly.

In grammarian terms, simple present tense is;

1. When the action is simply mentioned and there is nothing being said about its completeness.
2. It is used to talk about an action which happens on a regular basis (habitual) or something that is a general truth.
3. It is also used to give instructions.

here's a diagram to help you see how the action happens regularly and how the completeness of the action is not mentioned (you don't know when it will stop happening/ it may not change at all)

Need examples?

1. I shower every morning. (this is an action that is habitual since it happens every morning and you don't know when you will decide to not shower in the morning)
2. Mum shops for groceries every Sunday. (this means that in the past, present and future mum shops for groceries on Sundays and you don't know when she will decide to stop shopping for groceries on Sundays)
3. A magnet attracts iron. (this is a general truth and it will not change)

Now, I'm sure that you're wondering why the verbs used are not in the basic word form (why did i use "shops" instead of "shop"?)

The reason is because in English, the verbs are conjugated depending on the subject and tense used. 

Here, let me give you a Conjugation table / Positive Statement table to understand it easier. 

The tense for this table is of course SIMPLE PRESENT TENSE

Subject	Conjugated Verb	Rest of the sentence
I/We(I + You)	play	football every day
You	play	football every day
They/The children/The cats (these are known as 3rd person plural)	play	football every day
He/She/It/Tom/Sherry/Abu/Siti/The boy/The girl (these are all known as 3rd person singular)	plays	football every day

So, the FORMS for SIMPLE PRESENT TENSE:

1. For subjects I, you, and they = use the basic form of the verb (also known as infinitive)
2. For subjects he,she, it, etc (3rd person plural) = use infinitive + 's'

Negative Statement Table 

Subjects	Don’t (Do Not) / Doesn’t (Does Not)	Verb	Rest of the sentence
I/We (I + You)	don’t	play	football
You	don’t	play	football
They/The children/The cats (these are known as 3rd person plural)	don’t	play	football
He/She/It/Tom/Sherry/Abu/Siti/The boy/The girl (these are all known as 3rd person singular)	doesn't	play	football

REMEMBER,
1.in negative statements, the Subjects I, We, You, They (3rd person plural) uses the word "don't"
2. but only He/She/It (3rd person singular uses the word "doesn't".
3. and all the verbs are the same which is in the base form

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Okay, we're almost finished now. The only thing left is that I want to give you some signal words that are usually used to show SIMPLE PRESENT TENSE.

A. Adverbs of frequency to tell you that you should use present tense

Always

Often

Usually

Sometimes

Seldom

Never (this is for negative statements)

B. Phrases of time

Every day

Every week

Every year

On Sundays

After school

Now, that is basically all that you need to know for SIMPLE PRESENT TENSE! Easy peasy right?

Let's move on to the exercise then!