The Present Simple tense is the most basic tense in English and uses the base form of the verb (except for the verb be). The only change from the base is the addition of s for third person singular.
There are two basic structures for the Present Simple:
1. Positive sentences
| subject | + | main verb |
| Present Simple |
2. Negative and question sentences
| subject | + | auxiliary do | + | main verb |
| conjugated in Present Simple | ||||
| do, does | base |
Look at these examples with the main verb like:
| subject | auxiliary verb | main verb | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| + | I, you, we, they | like | coffee. | ||
| He, she, it | likes | coffee. | |||
| - | I, you, we, they | do | not | like | coffee. |
| He, she, it | does | not | like | coffee. | |
| ? | Do | I, you, we, they | like | coffee? | |
| Does | he, she, it | like | coffee? |
From the above table, notice the following points.
For positive sentences:
For negative and question sentences:
The structure of the Present Simple with the main verb be is:
| subject | + | main verb be |
| conjugated in Present Simple | ||
| am, are, is |
Look at these examples with the main verb be:
| subject | main verb be | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| + | I | am | French. | |
| You, we, they | are | French. | ||
| He, she, it | is | French. | ||
| - | I | am | not | old. |
| You, we, they | are | not | old. | |
| He, she, it | is | not | old. | |
| ? | Am | I | late? | |
| Are | you, we, they | late? | ||
| Is | he, she, it | late? |
From the above table, notice the following points.
We use the Present Simple to talk about:
We use the Present Simple tense when:
Look at these examples:
For stative verbs, we can use the Present Simple to talk about now. Stative verbs do not describe action. They describe state, and are verbs such as: like, sound, belong to, need, seem. We can use these verbs with the Present Simple tense to talk about a situation at the present time, not general.
The verb be is always special. It is a stative verb, and we use it in the Present Simple tense to talk about now situations and about general situations. Look at these examples of the verb be in the Present Simple tense - some are general and some are now:
Contributor: Josef Essberger, founder of EnglishClub.com. Originally from London, England, Josef is the author of several books for learners of English including English Prepositions List and Learn English in 7.
Updated: June 2023This page shows the use of the Present Simple tense to talk about now and about general time. But note that there are other uses for the Present Simple, for example in the zero conditional or to talk about the future.
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