Simple Present Tense

Look at the paragraph below!

Risky’s Daily Activity

Risky usually gets up at 4 o’clock in the morning. Then, she cleans my room and takes a bath. She puts on her clothes and prays. She helps her parents before she has breakfast in the dinning room, and she never forgets to wash her hands before having breakfast.

After breakfast at about 6 o’clock, she goes to school. She goes to school by motorcycle because her school is far from her house. She arrives at school at about 6.15. After school, she usually has lunch and takes a nap.

In the afternoon, she does her homework and sometimes watches TV. In the evening, she stays at home with her parents and studies her lessons. Then, she goes to bed at about 09.30 pm.

The paragraph above uses simple present to tell about Risky’s activity. How do we know that?

First of all we have to know the verb used in it, because tense is the changing of the verb. Let’s have a look the verb in that paragraph. All the verbs used in that paragraph are simple verbs or V1 such as get, clean, take a bath, put and so on. Those verbs are added with s/es because of the subject, the third singular subject (she, he, it). To make it more clearly, look at the table below!

Verbal

Patterns	Example sentences
(+) I/You/They/We + V1 (- ) I/You/They/We + do not + V1 (?) Do + I/You/They/We + V1? (+) She/He/It + V1(s/es) (- )  She/He/It + does not + V1 (?) Does + She/He/It + V1?	They get up at 4 o’clock every morning. They do not get up at 4 o’clock every morning. Do they get up at 4 o’clock every morning?        Yes, they do     /      No, they don’t He gets up at 4 o’clock every morning. He does not get up at 4 o’clock every morning. Does he get up at 4 o’clock every morning?         Yes, he does     /    No, he doesn’t

You see the different sentences above? They are similar in tense but different in using the verbs. Look at the verb ‘get’ in the table above! Seeing the table above, we can conclude that if the subject ‘she, he and it’, the verb should be added by s/es. However, when the subjects ‘I, you, they and we’, the verb should not be added by s/es.  

How to put s/es after the verb?

To put s/es in the verbs when the subject ‘she, he and it’, you should look at the end of the verb. If the verb ends with –ch, -sh, -ss, -x and -o, the verb should be added by –es. The other endings are just added by –s. But remember it only happens when the subjects ‘she, he and it’.

Example

·                                                                 Watch = watches        : She always watches TV before sleeping.

·  Push = pushes         : He always pushes the door every time he wants to

  enter the room.

·  Kiss = kisses           : My mother seldom kisses me

·  Box = boxes            : The boxer boxes another boxer hard.

·  Do = does               : He never does his homework himself instead of

  cheating his friends.

The rule of putting -s/-es after the verb ending with ‘y’

The verb ending with ‘y’ preceded by consonant, it is added by –es.

Example:

·  Study = studies      : He studies his lessons everyday.

·  Fly = flies              : It often flies on my shoulders.

·  Cry = cries             : She seldom cries in the night.

·  Bury = buries          : He buries his cat’s death.

·  Modify = modifies   : She often modifies her blog.

But when the verb ending with ‘y’ preceded vocal, it is added just by –s

Example:

·  Play = plays           : He plays badminton every night.

·  Buy = buys             : She buys a new book twice a week.

·  Enjoy = enjoys       : A cat enjoys eating a mouse.

Beside all of those rules above, the verbs are just added by –s.

Example:

·  Open = opens          : She always opens her door early in the morning.

·  Close = closes         : He closes his door every time he wants to sleep.

·  Type = types           : She types her daily activity in her laptop.

·  See = sees              : Henry sees the mountain every other day.

Nominal

Patterns	Sentence examples
I am You/ They/ We + are She/ He/ It + is	I am a teacher. You are students. They are in the market. We are diligent. She is smart. He is in Australia. It is cute.

It is nominal rule. It uses ‘to be’ (is/am/are) to relate between a subject and a complement (ANA: Adjective, Noun and Adverb). The most important thing in this part is that you should know the exact ‘to be’ for the subjects. You may not put ‘are’ after subject ‘I’ because every subject, I, you, they, we, she, he, it, has their own ‘to be’.

Note:

You may note combine between VERBAL sentence and NOMINAL sentence.

Example:

I am study.                      

But    

I study.            or             I am a student.

She is goes to market.

But  

She goes to market.   or     She is in the market.

Usage

This tense is used to express:

1.         Habitual action

To know whether the sentence is habitual action or not, we can look at the time in it. For example, ‘She always washes her clothes in the morning’. Look at the adverb of time ‘always’ in that sentence. It is one of the adverbs of time that show the sentence is simple present tense. Here are other adverbs of time that are used to tell habitual action.

·        Often

·        Seldom

·        Always

·        Everyday

·        Every month

·        Every morning

·        Twice a week

·        Once a month

·        Never

·        Sometimes

·        Usually

·        Barely

·        Regularly

·        Frequently

·        Rarely

·        Ever (?)

2.        General Truth/ Permanent Statement

When you talk about the general truth or permanent statement that everybody will know or it is always in that place, you should use simple present. You may not use other tenses instead of simple present tense.

Example:

·        Fire is hot

·        The sun rises in the east and sets in the west.

·        A week has seven days.

·        A month has twelve months.

Everybody will admit the truth of the statement above. No one will say ‘fire is cold’ instead of a crazy man. Then, when you talk about ‘the sun rises’, it is a permanent statement. It always rises in that place, in the east.

  

3.        Time table

When you talk about the schedule, we can use simple present.

Example:

·        The class starts at 7 p.m.

·        The bus leaves the station in the afternoon.

Although, it implies future time, you are still able to use simple present.

Check your understanding!

Change the verbs in the brackets based on the subjects and kinds of sentences below!

1.    John ________(cook) in the kitchen every morning.

2.    Henry_______(go) to school everyday.

3.    Benny often________(give) me money.

4.    Ricky always________(wash) her dirty clothes.

5.    They_______(play) football every afternoon.

6.    Sandy and Salsa _______(be) students of SMKN 1 Rasau Jaya.

7.    They _________(be) handsome but cruel.

8.    I ­_________(speak) to foreigner everyday.

9.    We _________(not see) the mountain everyday.

Change the sentences below into negative and interrogative!

1.    She speaks English once a week.

2.    He always comes here on Sunday.

3.    They never play table tennis.

4.    We often jump like a frog.

5.    Everybody likes this blog.