The simple present is used to describe:
- Habits
- General truths
- Fixed arrangements.
The simple present tense is simple to form. Just use the base form of the verb: (I take, you take, we take, they take) The 3rd person singular takes an -s at the end. (he takes, she takes)
For a few verbs, the third-person singular ends with -es instead of -s. Typically, these are verbs whose root form ends in o, ch, sh, th, ss, gh, or z.
The simple present tense is used:
- To express habits, general truths, repeated actions or unchanging situations, emotions, and wishes:
I smoke (habit); I work in London (unchanging situation); London is a large city (general truth) - To give instructions or directions:
You walk for two hundred meters, then you turn left. - To express fixed arrangements, present or future:
Your exam starts at 09.00 - To express future time, after some conjunctions: after, when, before, as soon as, until:
He'll give it to you when you come next Saturday.
Examples
- For habits
He drinks tea at breakfast.
She only eats fish.
They watch television regularly. - For Unchanging situations
We catch the bus every morning.
It rains every afternoon in the hot season.
They drive to Monaco every summer. - For general truths
Water freezes at zero degrees.
The Earth revolves around the Sun.
Her mother is Peruvian. - For instructions or directions
Open the packet and pour the contents into hot water.
You take the No.6 bus to Watney and then the No.10 to Bedford. - For fixed arrangements
His mother arrives tomorrow.
Our holiday starts on the 26th of March
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