Present Simple (present tense)

English Verb Tense: The Present Simple

A video response: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJ5GFBaM8No

In this lesson Rama Explains how we form and use the Present Simple tense, and slam dunks a basketball. Aslo a plane crash, a dancing monster, pizza, cross dressing and much much more!

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In English we use the Present Simple tense(aka simple present) more than any other verb tense, by far. Despite the fact that it has simple in its name it isn't very simple at all. Let's take a quick look at some of the more difficult parts of the Present Simple tense First making questions or negatives in the Present Simple can be tricky. The reason is because most Present Simple sentences don't have helper verbs so if you want to make a question you need to go and take the helper verb 'do' to help form a question. Unless the main verb in the sentence is the verb to be in which case you can simply move it to the front of the sentence to form a question or add 'not' to make it negative. As a result the is not a very clear pattern and so many non native English speakers will ask questions like "Are you like dogs or cats?"
There's also the adding of an 's' (that more often than not makes a 'z' sound) at the end of all verbs that have 'she' 'he' or 'it' in the present simple tense. We call this the 'sheheit' rule. For example, I like dogs but my girlfriend likes cats' This might be one of the most difficult things for many non-native English speakers to remember, because it is just so random. To make matters worse if the 'helper verb' can is used then the rule is ignored and the verb does not take the 's'. Also 'do' used as a helper verb in both the question and negative forms takes the 's' from the main verb so many non-native English speakers are confused and write sentences like "Do she likes cats?" or "Does she likes cats?" instead of the correct "Does she like cats?"
Present simple might be the most important tense to really master in English. If you can masterfully form questions and use the 'sheheit' rule correctly your spoken English will sound much more natural, and much more native.
I hope you find this video informative and enjoy it even half as much as we did making it.

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