Simple Present

The present tense is the base form of the verb: I work in London.

But the third person (she/he/it) adds an -s: She works in London.

Use

We use the present tense to talk about:

• something that is true in the present:

I’m nineteen years old.
He lives in London.
I’m a student.

• something that happens again and again in the present:

I play football every weekend.

We use words like sometimes, often. always, and never (adverbs of frequency) with the present tense:

I sometimes go to the cinema.
She never plays football.

• something that is always true:

The human body contains 206 bones.
Light travels at almost 300,000 kilometres per second.

  

• something that is fixed in the future.

The school terms starts next week.
The train leaves at 1945 this evening.
We fly to Paris next week.

Questions and negatives

Look at these questions:

Do you play the piano?
Where do you live?
Does Jack play football?
Where does he come from?
Do Rita and Angela live in Manchester?
Where do they work?

• With the present tense, we use do and does to make questions. We use does for the third person (she/he/it) and we use do for the others.

 We use do and does with question words like where, what and why:

 But look at these questions with who:

Who lives in London?
Who plays football at the weekend?
Who works at Liverpool City Hospital?

Look at these sentences:

I like tennis, but I don’t like football. (don’t = do not)
I don’t live in London now.
I don’t play the piano, but I play the guitar.
They don’t work at the weekend.
John doesn’t live in Manchester. (doesn’t = does not)
Angela doesn’t drive to work. She goes by bus.

• With the present tense we use do and does to make negatives. We use does not (doesn’t) for the third person (she/he/it) and we use do not (don’t) for the others.

Complete these sentences with don’t or doesn’t:

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verb phrases

The verb phrase in English has the following forms:

1) a main verb:

	Verb
We I Everybody We	are like saw. laughed.	here. it the accident

The verb may be in the present tense (are, like) or the past tense (saw, laughed). A verb phrase with only a main verb expresses simple aspect

2) an auxiliary verb ("be") and a main verb in –ing form:

	Auxiliary "be"	Verb (-ing)
Everybody We	is were	watching laughing

A verb phrase with "be" and –ing expresses continuous aspect.

3) an auxiliary verb ("have") and a main verb with past participle:

	Auxillary "have"	Verb (past participle)
They Everybody He	have has had	enjoyed worked finished	themselves. hard. work.

A verb with "have" and the past participle expresses perfect aspect. A verb with have/has expresses present perfect, and a verb with had expresses past perfect.

4) an auxiliary verb ("have" + "been") and a main verb in the –ing form:

	Auxiliary "have" + "been"	Verb (-ing)
Everybody He	has been had been	working singing	hard

A verb with "have" and "been" and the present participle expresses perfect continuous aspect. A verb with have/hasexpresses present perfect continuous, and a verb with had expresses past perfect continuous.

5) a modal verb (can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, will, would) and a main verb:

	Modal Verb	Main verb
They He	will might	come. come.

6) We can use modal verbs with the auxiliaries "be", "have", and "have been":

	Modal	Auxiliary	Verb
They He She	will might must	be have have been	listening arrived listening

Activities

Active and passive:

Transitive verbs have a passive form as well as an active form:

The hunter killed the lion. (active) <> The lion was killed by the hunter. (passive)

Someone has cleaned the windows <> The windows have been cleaned.

The passive forms are made up of the verb "be" with a past participle:

	"be"	Past participle
English The windows Lunch The work They	is have been was being will be might have been	spoken cleaned served finished invited	all over the world soon to the part

SOURCE