PRESENT SIMPLE 1. FORM base verb
I / you / we / they he / she / it
Affirmative I work. She works.
Negative I don’t work. She doesn’t work.
Question Do I work? Does she work?
2. EXCEPTIONS IN SPELLING Exceptions in spelling when adding s Final s/ss/sh/ch/x/o final consonant + y (but not vowel + y)
Examples Wash – washes Try – tries (but play – plays)
3. USE OF THE PRESENT SIMPLE A. B.
C.
Repeated actions, habits and routines. Example: He always goes to school by bus. General, universal truths. States. Examples: Cows give milk. Amy is a doctor. Scheduled events in the near future (timetables) Example: The train leaves at 6 pm.
4. TIME EXPRESSION A.
Frequency adverbs. They are organized into a scale where 0% is never and 100% is always. The rest of adverbs are placed along the scale, according to their meaning.
never
hardly ever / seldom
sometimes
often
usually
always
They are placed before the verb (but not the auxiliary), except when using “to be”, in this case he adverb comes after the verb (after the subject in questions). Examples: He seldom goes to school by bus but She is seldom at school on Tuesdays. Do you often play basketball? but Are you often at home? We don’t usually go out at night but I’m not usually tired after school. B.
Time adverbs. They naturally take the final position in the sentence, but they can be placed outside the sentence. That is, at the verb by beginning and separated from the sentences by a comma. Examples: We go to school every morning. Every morning, we go to school.