Present Simple

A1–A2TensesJanuary 13, 2026

Transcript

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hi i'm rebecca welcome to this series on

english tenses

in this class we will look at the

present simple tense

i'll show you exactly when to use it

how to use it and also what mistakes to

be careful of when you're using this

tense

we'll also go through lots of practice

exercises together so you will learn

exactly how to use this tense correctly

and confidently are you ready

let's get started this series is about

english tenses but what are tenses

anyway

tenses are simply the way we talk about

time in english

what do we mean by time we mean the past

the present the future right these are

all different times and we have

different tenses to express or talk

about those times

so

in this lesson

we're going to look at the two basic

ways that

you we can speak about the present in

english and they are

the present simple and the present

continuous

or present progressive as it's also

called

now although we are focusing on the

present simple i want to give you a

little overview so that you understand

the basic differences between these two

simple tenses all right

so let me give you an example

in present simple we would say

i work

and in present continuous we would say

i am working

so what's the difference

what's the difference between these two

sentences

what's the difference is there a

difference

i don't know what do you think

well

i do know

and there is a difference perhaps in

your language there isn't any difference

because in many languages there is no

difference between the way that these

two ideas are expressed but in english

there is a difference in the idea and

the way that we say it so let me explain

what that difference is

when we say i am working

which is that other tense present

continuous which you can learn later

that is talking about something that's

happening now

or something temporary

what do i mean by now for example

i am teaching

you are listening right all these things

are happening right now

so when we are saying that when i'm

saying that

i'm using present continuous

but when i say i work

that is in general

for example i may not be working at this

moment but i work somewhere i have a job

so when we talk about something that's

true in general

that's present simple

also

present simple is for something that's

more or less permanent

for example if you have a job of course

no job or nothing in life is necessarily

permanent what is permanent mean that it

lasts all the time

but

let's say you're not changing jobs every

day

so more or less this is the job you

always have

this is your permanent job

so then for those kind of activities we

use present simple and we say i work at

the bank i work in the store etc

but

i am working would just be right now

or it could also be for something

temporary

temporary means only for a short period

of time

this is for always

this is for a short period of time

this is true in general

and this one is true for something

happening now

so those are some basic differences

between these two tenses

now let's focus on the tense that we're

working on today

which is present simple

so how does it sound how does it

actually

work

it's like this so these are the

different subjects

and this is the verb and the way we use

it so just repeat it after me

i work

you work

we work

they work

he works

she works

and it works

it meaning maybe the the air conditioner

or the computer

it is for something which is not a

person it's for a thing

and we saw some differences there don't

worry about those changes now we're

going to learn all about that in a later

part of this

lesson okay

so that's what it sounds like this is a

basic description of these two

differences which you can keep in mind

as we now move forward with the present

simple tense now let's look at when we

use the present simple tense okay

so

we have five different situations in

which we can use this tense let's go

through them one by one

first of all we can use the present

simple tense to talk about things which

are permanent which are more or less

always true okay for example

we live in new york

so let's suppose that this is where you

live right not just for a short time but

for a long time and more or less it's a

permanent situation it's always true for

you it doesn't mean it's a completely

true always but most of the time this is

where you live

so that's what we consider permanent

so we could say we live in new york

he works at a bank

so when we say he works at a bank that

means that's his

permanent regular job okay it's not a

temporary job it's not a job that he has

just for a little while that's where he

works most of the time okay

so we use this for permanent situations

think about yourself

okay whenever you're trying to learn a

tense one of the great things you can do

is to think of an example that applies

to your life or to people that you know

what is permanent for you

so you could say a sentence right now

such as

i live in

whichever city you live in

or if you if you're working somewhere

and then you could say i work

okay

so

you by making these sentences are

already using the present simple tense

it's that simple

okay

so let's look at another situation in

which you can use

the present simple tense for routines so

what's a routine a routine is something

you do regularly okay for example

i wake up at six o'clock every day

okay

i go to sleep at 11.

so wake

go

these verbs are in the present simple

tense because they're talking about a

regular activity

a routine

we can also use this tense to talk about

facts

for example

the sun rises in the east

it's just a fact it's something that's a

scientific truth it's not something that

i decided or you decided it's just true

we could also say the sun sets

in the west

okay

next

we can use this tense

to talk about

schedules because think about it what is

a schedule

a schedule tells us when something is

going to happen

and that's kind of connected to this

point right it's a regularly scheduled

event

so for example

we could say

our class starts at nine o'clock

why are we using present simple because

our class always starts at nine o'clock

all right it's kind of permanent it's

kind of a routine

it's a schedule

or

the flight leaves at noon

not just

this time but the flight always leaves

at noon it has a schedule

and therefore we're using the present

simple tense with the words starts

and leaves

okay got that

now let's look at one other situation

there are some words in english and

they're called adverbs of frequency to

describe

how often something is happening

and these words are

shown down here but let's look at this

sentence first

she always takes the bus

so always is a word that tells us how

often something happens

and all of these words down here are

just like that

so if always is like a hundred percent

of the time

we have other words

we have the word never

which is

zero percent it never happens it doesn't

happen at all

so we could say here she never takes the

bus

right

we could also say

let's say

50 of the time okay she takes the bus so

we could say she sometimes takes the bus

or

once in a while okay she rarely takes

the bus

or

she often takes the bus

so when you see one of these words which

are called adverbs of frequency that

also tells you that you should be using

the present simple tense along with

these other situations

so if you want to learn it really well

as i said apply it to yourself

say something about your routine

say something

about what you always do or what you

never do

and that way you are already using the

present simple tense now let's look at

how to form the present simple tense

so i've divided the board into three

sections

four positive sentences

negative sentences and four questions

and we'll go through each one step by

step okay

so

for these subjects

i you

we and they

we just say work

for example

i work

you can say it after me that way you

will remember the grammar

you'll also get the pronunciation and

it'll help you to learn and remember

so repeat after me

i work

you work

we work

they work

good

now

look what happens here when it comes to

he she and it

we need to add an s

okay

that's all we need to add an s for he

she and it

not because it's plural it's not plural

but from a grammar point of view

in the present simple we need to add an

s here so say it after me

he works

she works

and

it works okay very good so that's for a

positive or affirmative sentence

now let's look at a negative sentence

so

what we would say is i don't work

if we're shortening it

or we would say i

do not work

so what happened here how did we make it

negative

first we have to add this word do

and down here we need to add the word

does

so this is a helping verb that we have

to use in this negative form all right

so just learn it the way it is and it

you'll understand it and you'll get used

to it

so we say i do not work

but do not when we

shorten it

becomes

don't

and how does that happen

we take out the o here

and then we squeeze these words together

we join them together and it becomes

don't

so first let's

let's say it with the contraction with

the short form because that's how we

usually speak

it is correct to say i do not work

but usually we'll say i don't work all

right

but the most important thing to remember

is here we say i do not work but here it

becomes he

does not work

and does not

when we shorten it when we contract it

becomes

doesn't

so what happened here

we canceled the o

and again we joined these two words

does and not and it became doesn't

and you can always know how to spell

this contraction or this short form

because of where we put the apostrophe

we put the apostrophe this little comma

that's in the air

in the place where we take out a letter

so we put it here instead of the o and

we put it here instead of the o

so

let's go through these

i don't work

you don't work

we don't work

they don't work

now let's go to he she in it remember he

she and it is always going to be a

little bit different

let's hear it and say it

he doesn't work

she doesn't work

it doesn't work

let's say the the phone the computer it

doesn't work

okay

now let's go to the questions so what

happens in the questions in the question

we also have to use that helping verb

do okay do here and does down here

and we have to

change the order

so instead of saying i do we say do i

all right so repeat it after me

do i work

i don't know i don't remember

do you work

do we work

do they

work down here you would say

with he she and it

does he work

does she work

does it work all right now usually of

course

you're not just going to say do you work

you might say something more than that

do you work on fridays do you work

monday to friday do you work at the bank

all right so usually there's something

more but i've just put the basic form

here so that you understand the

structure of how to use this tense

now another important point

is that sometimes when we ask questions

we don't just start with do or does

but we need to add a question word right

so maybe you want to say where

what are the question words first of all

who

what

when

where

why how how much how many how often okay

these are all what are called question

words but if you have one of these

question words all you have to do it's

really easy the only thing you have to

do is to put that question word right

before

this structure so

where

do you work right

when do you work why do you work

how much do you work

how often do you work

but we're keeping the same structure and

we still need to have that helping verb

do

the same down here

where does he work

when does she work okay

so keep that structure and even if you

have a question word don't worry just

put it at the beginning

so here we have some examples

where do you live

what do you do

okay

but the most important thing to remember

is this part

okay

he works she works it works

this is the only place in the entire

board where we're adding an s

to the verb itself

everywhere else

we're just using the base form of the

verb right so let's say our verb is to

work

so here it's work i work i don't work do

you work

he works here it's different but after

that it goes back to the base form of

the verb right he doesn't

work

does he work

so even though with he she and it in the

positive sentence we add the s but here

in the negative no just go back to the

base form and in the question go back to

the base form of the word work

but you do need to remember that in that

positive sentence add the s okay

so that's the structure of the present

simple tense it's really pretty

straightforward you just need to

practice it and you will get it now

let's look at some of the spelling

changes we need to make in the present

simple tense

we only need to make those changes as i

mentioned earlier

when we're using he she or it

because for example we say i work but he

works right

so what was the spelling change we

needed there we had to add an s and most

of the time with most verbs

all you need to do is add that s

for example

dance becomes

dances

you can say it after me as well okay

cook

cooks

sleep

sleeps

all right so there all we did we just

added the s

for with the he she or it all right

next

if the verb

ends with an s

or an sh

or a ch

or an x

then

we need to add

e s

and we can almost hear it okay just

listen

for example

kiss kisses

you see that we're hearing kisses

is a little bit it's a little bit longer

right so that tells us that we need to

add an es

the next one wash

becomes

washes

teach

teaches

fix

fixes okay

so that's another change

another one is

verbs ending in a consonant and y

what do i mean by that if we look at

this verb study

it ends with a y right

and just before the y we have a

consonant

what's a consonant

anything that's not a vowel is a

consonant so what's a vowel a vowel

in english is a e i o or u

everything else b d g

x etc these are all consonants

so d

is a consonant or here before in the

word try

we have a y and before that we have a

consonant right

so what happens in those cases we have

to drop that last y

and we have to add

i e s

you've probably seen this lots of times

okay

but this is actually what's happening so

study becomes

studies

try

becomes

tries

okay

you'll get it you'll see fry fries right

like french fries okay

all right

so

then last of all there are some other

verbs they're usually irregular verbs

okay these are the most common patterns

but there are a few verbs

where the ending

might be

different in one way or another okay

sometimes the verb really changes and

you have to pay attention to that you

may be familiar with many of these

already but here are a few examples

go

becomes like i go he

goes

i do

she

does

i have

it

has

so you see that in some cases the verb

changed completely okay so these are the

most common patterns

for spelling changes in the present

simple tense

now let's look at how to give short

answers in english

see in real conversation when someone

asks you a question

we don't usually repeat the whole

question in our answer we just give

what's called like a short answer

let me give you an example

if someone says

do they need help

then you could just say in short

either

yes they do

or no they don't

so we do not have to say yes they need

help right you don't have to repeat that

whole question

you just give what's called the short

answer and how do you know

how to shorten it it's really easy

so if the question

starts with do like this right

then

your answer will include some form of do

or don't depending on if it's a positive

sentence or a negative one

so we see here do they need help

yes they

do

right

or no they don't

all right

so that the do the way the question

starts

is the way

you will be able to answer it

all right it's really pretty simple it

really is

the important thing to remember is that

in the affirmative or positive answer

we cannot shorten it okay there is no

way to shorten that correctly so here we

have to say yes they do

but here you can use the short form or

that contraction that we learned

and you can say no they don't

all right let's look at another example

this time i think you'll be able to

apply the principle yourself

so the question is does he speak french

so how did it start it does so what are

our options

yes he

does right

or

no he

doesn't

okay

again the does

is used in the short answer yes he does

no he

doesn't

got it

all right so based on that you can see

that you could answer any question that

someone's asking you in present simple

by just listening carefully to the

question

but you do have to pay attention also to

the subject here so for example in this

last one

do you like this song

somebody asks you do you like this song

so your answer

they're asking you so you can say yes

you you have to say yes i all right

yes i

do

right the do comes comes into play again

or

no i

don't

so again

you do see the same principle applied

all the way

and again remember in the positive form

you cannot shorten it

but in the negative form you can and you

should shorten it because that's how we

normally speak

and these short answers are used a lot

in normal conversation so it would be a

good idea for you to learn them and it's

really pretty fast and i think you might

have already learned them so do you

understand

you could say

yes i

do i hope that's what you said okay all

right now let's look at some common

mistakes that students often make when

they start using the present simple

tense and this way you will know what to

be careful of so that you don't make

these kind of mistakes all right let's

look so usually the mistakes are of four

different kinds

sometimes the mistake is in the tense

itself

so remember we mentioned at the

beginning that there can be present

simple and present continuous and that

present simple is for something

permanent and present continuous is for

something temporary

so sometimes learners get mis

get mixed up between these two tenses so

let's say in this example that this

person lives in tokyo right

it's not

just for a little while that's where

that person lives

so if that person said i'm living in

tokyo that would be wrong

if that's where the person stays

permanently

he or she should say i

live in tokyo

they could say i'm living in tokyo only

if it's something temporary

all right

so that is one mistake that's sometimes

made with the present simple that

confusion between it and present

continuous

now let's look at another kind of

mistake

that's when a mistake is made with the

verb form

you'll find it because now you're good

at this okay

ready let's read these are all mistakes

okay so these are all wrong we're going

to correct them together

the sentence right now says we likes to

travel

so the verb is wrong what should it be

we

like to travel

say it after me we like to travel

good

here's a mistake same the same thing in

the verb form but in a negative sentence

they doesn't eat vegetables

that's wrong you know that what should

it be

they

don't eat vegetables say it after me

they don't eat vegetables

good

and here's a mistake in the question

does you talk to him often

that's wrong we can't say that we need

to say what

do you

say it after me do you talk to him often

good all right so those are verb form

kind of mistakes another mistake that's

possible is in spelling we looked at the

many kinds of spelling right and you

need to make the changes so here the

person wrote she tries to save money but

the spelling of the verb is incorrect

because here it's a y and before that is

a consonant remember

so what should it be

t r i e s

we had to drop that y and add ies so

you'll pick up those spelling changes

okay just pay attention when you're

reading and so on and it'll come to you

naturally

next sometimes an entire word is missing

so let's look at this one this is a

question

what time you finish work

it almost sounds right but it's not

it's wrong grammatically in english

that's wrong

can you understand it yes you can

understand it but it's still wrong

so how do we correct it

did you find the mistake

so we should say what time

do you finish work so what was missing

was that helping word okay the helping

remember we do have to add that even if

you have a question word here like what

time

all right what time do you finish work

so these are the four main kinds of

mistakes that you have to be careful of

intense using the wrong tense using the

wrong verb form

making any kind of spelling mistakes or

leaving out an essential verb or helping

verb

all right that's it you've been learning

a lot so now it's time to practice let's

get started

number one

i take

but he

what would you say in present simple

i take he

takes

right we have to add that s there right

very good

now let's work it the other way she does

we

do you know it

we do

very good

you enjoy

she

yes

i can hear you

she enjoys

very good

all right now let's uh make some phrases

negative all right so we're going from

positive to negative

they study

they

use the contraction

they don't

study

right don't being short for what do not

right you got it

the next one he sings

make it negative

he

yes

he doesn't sing

doesn't is short for what

does not

very good

now let's make some questions

so

let's read the sentence first she wants

to buy a new phone

how would we ask the question

what's the helping verb you have to use

helping

word

do or does

giving you a clue there

here it's

she so we have to say

does

she

want

to buy a new phone okay so remember we

come back to the base form of the verb

and we have to use do or does but

because it's she we're saying does

does she want to buy a new phone

okay

good let's do the last one

they sell books online

ask a question about that

again what are you going to start with

do this time right

do they

sell

books

online

right

okay

why do because now we're talking about

they and why does here because we were

talking about she all right so if you

got those right that's great if you got

any wrong maybe you can go back later

and check those parts but we're going to

practice some more we're going to learn

a little bit more and you'll get it for

sure by the end of this okay

stick with me to review

you know the present simple tense when

you know when to use it which we talked

about

and how to use it and how do you know

that you know how to use it when you can

do these things

you can make a positive sentence a

negative sentence and a question

for example

you should be able to say easily

they live in amsterdam

or

they don't live in amsterdam

or

do they live in amsterdam

you should be able to switch easily and

and comfortably and quickly and

correctly between these three sentences

okay

so remember

this is the present simple intense but

this is an entire series that we have of

english tenses so from the present

simple you can go to the next class

which is on the present continuous tense

and that way you can take your english

forward step by step all right

and if you'd like a little more practice

on this tense the present simple tense

go to invid

all right thank you very much for

watching i know you're a serious student

and i know you're going to make

good progress

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