Hi.
This lesson is all about making sentences
in the present simple tense.
I’ll show you how to make correct sentences and
avoid mistakes in grammar and spelling.
So let’s begin.
Welcome back to my series of lessons on the tenses.
This is part two of the present simple tense.
As always, if you have any
questions at all, just let me know in the comments
section below, and I will talk to you there.
Alright, in this lesson, we will first learn how to
make positive (or affirmative) sentences in
the present simple tense.
I will teach you when to add
–s to a verb such as ‘He works’, ‘She wishes’ etc.
You will also learn the spelling rules for adding
–s to a verb.
Then we’ll look at how to make
negative sentences, and finally we will discuss the
special case of the verb ‘be’.
There are exercises throughout this lesson, and
there’s a final quiz at the end.
OK, so how do you make a sentence in the present
simple?
I’m sure you know the answer – you just take
a subject (like I, you, we, they, he, she, it etc.) and
you add a verb.
For example, “I work.”
And you can add any other
information to the sentence, like “I work as a teacher.”
You can do this with other verbs too – “I play chess
once a week.”
“I eat two eggs for breakfast every
day.”
“I love my family.”
These are all present simple tense sentences, and
if you remember from the previous lesson, the first
sentence is a permanent situation, the second and
third talk about things I do regularly (habits or
routines), and the last sentence is a state using
the state verb ‘love’.
These are the main uses of the present simple tense.
Now, of course, it’s easy to make these sentences
with ‘I’ as the subject.
What about other subjects?
Well, let’s take the verb ‘work’ and try out some
other subjects.
You – work.
We – work.
They – work.
What about ‘Those men’?
Those men work.
‘My friends’?
Work.
These subjects are just like ‘I’.
But what happens when we have ‘He’ as the subject?
He works.
She works.
It works.
That man - works.
Suzie?
Works.
So you can see here that if the subject is ‘I’, ‘You’,
‘We’, ‘They’ or any plural noun such as ‘Those men’ or
‘My friends’ then you use the verb in the base form
without –s.
But if the subject is ‘He’, ‘She’,
‘It’ or any singular noun like ‘That man’ or ‘Suzie’
or any other name, then you take the base form of the
verb and you add –s.
It’s important to know that this –s is only used in the
present tense.
It’s not used in the past or future
– only the present.
OK, let’s now do a small
exercise with this.
There are nine sentences on the screen.
I want you to choose the correct form of
the verb in each sentence.
Pause the video now if you want – think about your
answers, then play the video again and check.
Alright, let’s look at the answers.
Number one – “He reads a lot of books.”
Number two – “Many children play baseball.”
Number three – “You like tomato
soup.”
Number four – “That bird flies fast.”
Number five – “I teach English.”
Number six – “We live together.”
Number seven – “She goes to college.”
Number eight – “It works just fine.”
Number nine – “They cook very well.”
Did you get them all right?
OK, I want you to notice something here.
We’ve added –s to some verbs.
But to the verb ‘go’, we didn’t
just add –s, we added ‘es’.
And to ‘fly’, we took out the ‘y’ and added ‘-ies’.
Why did we do that?
Well, it’s because there are some
important spelling rules for adding –s to a verb.
Let’s talk about those now.
To most verbs, we just add ‘s’.
So verbs like ‘love’, ‘run’, ‘work’, ‘speak’,
‘want’ etc. just take an –s at the end.
To some verbs we add ‘es’ – verbs like
‘pass’, ‘wish’, ‘search’, ‘fix’, ‘go’ and ‘do’.
But why is that?
Can you guess the rule?
If you want, stop the video, look at the
verbs, think about it, then play the video again and
check.
Here’s the rule: If a verb ends in –s, -sh, -ch, or –
x, then we add ‘es’ to the verb.
If you think about it, these sounds are all
related - ‘s’, ‘sh’, ‘ch’, ‘x’ – they all sound
similar, and it’s easier to pronounce them if you add
‘es’ – ‘passes’, ‘wishes’, ‘searches’, ‘fixes‘ and so
on.
Also, if a verb ends in ‘o’ and has a consonant
before it like ‘g’ or ‘d’ then we add ‘es’.
Don’t worry so much about this
rule – just remember to put ‘es’ in ‘goes’ and ‘does.’
With verbs ending in –y, we just add ‘s’ to some verbs
like ‘buy, ‘play’ or ‘enjoy’.
But with other verbs like ‘try’, ‘fly’ and
‘study’, we remove the ‘y’ and we add ‘ies.’
Why do we do that?
Can you guess the rule?
Well, if you look at the verbs ‘buy’, ‘play’ and
‘enjoy’ you see that they end in a vowel plus –y.
A vowel is one of these
letters - ‘a’, ‘e’, ‘I’,’o’ and ‘u’.
These verbs just take an ‘s’ after them.
So we have ‘buys’, ‘plays’ and ‘enjoys’
What about the next set of verbs?
Here, you see that they end in a consonant
(like ‘r’, ‘l’ or ‘d’) plus y.
Any letter that is not a vowel is a consonant.
In English there are twenty-six
letters: five vowels (a, e, i, o, and u), and twenty-one
consonants.
Finally, there are some spellings we call irregular
because there are no rules for them – the verbs ‘have’
and ‘be’ are the most common ones.
‘Have’ becomes ‘has’ which is just ‘h’,
‘a’, ‘s’, and the verb ‘be’ has three forms – am, is,
and are.
We’ll talk about the verb ‘be’ later in this lesson.
OK, now you know how to make positive sentences,
and when to add –s to a verb using the correct
spelling.
So let’s move on to making negative
sentences in the present simple tense.
To talk about making negative sentences, you
need to know a little secret about the English
language.
This is important for making negative
sentences in any tense, not just the present simple.
The secret is that most English sentences have two
verbs – a main verb and a helping verb.
Let’s take one of our original
examples : “I play chess once a week”.
Now you might be saying, “I only see one
verb – play.”
Well, the verb ‘play ’ is the main verb in this
sentence.
So where’s the helping verb?
In the present simple tense, the
helping verb is often hiding – it’s the verb
‘do’.
Normally, when we speak, we don’t say it but
it’s still there.
Now different tenses have
different helping verbs but remember that for the
present simple tense, the helping verb is ‘do’.
OK, why is this important?
It’s important because to make negative sentences,
you need to bring the helping verb out of its
hiding place.
That’s the first step.
The second step is to add the negative word ‘not’.
So “I do not play chess once a
week.”
When we speak, this might sound very mechanical
like a robot – “I do not play chess.”
To sound more natural, we usually shorten
‘do not’ to don’t.
So “I don’t play chess once a week.”
In this sentence, the subject is ‘I’.
Here’s the form table for present
simple tense sentences.
I want you to fill in the
correct negative form for all the other subjects.
If you’re not sure, just take
a guess.
Stop the video if you want, think about it,
then play the video and check.
Alright, the subjects ‘I’, ‘You’, ‘We’, ‘They’ and all
plurals are straightforward – you just put ‘do not’ or
‘don’t’ in front of the verb.
“I don’t play chess”, “You don’t play chess”, “My
friends don’t play chess” etc.
But for ‘He’, ‘She’, ‘It’ or any singular noun,
remember you must add ‘s’ to the verb.
But where do you add the ‘s’?
Well you add it to the helping verb
– ‘do’.
So for these subjects : ‘does not’,
shortened to ‘doesn’t’ is used to make the negative.
“He doesn’t play chess”, “She doesn’t play chess”,
“Suzie doesn’t play chess” etc.
Pay attention to the pronunciation of that –
it’s pronounced /dʌznt/ - there’s a ‘z ’ sound there
– it’s not an ‘s’ sound.
So /dʌznt/.
Here’s a quick exercise.
You see nine sentences on the screen.
These are the same sentences from the
first exercise.
But here, I’ve made them negative.
Now, some of these sentences are correct, and
some are wrong.
If a sentence is wrong, I want
you to change it to the correct form.
Stop the video now if you want.
Think about your answers, then play the video again
and check.
Alright, the form table is on the screen now, and
let’s look at the answers.
Number one is wrong.
It should be “He doesn’t read
a lot of books.”
This is a very common mistake – in
negative sentences in the present simple tense, you
should only add ‘s’ to the helping verb and you have
‘doesn’t’.
Don’t add –s again to the main verb.
Number two is correct.
We have a plural subject –
“Many children don’t play baseball.”
Number three is wrong.
For ‘You’ the correct negative form is
‘don’t.’
So “You don’t like tomato soup.”
Number four is also wrong.
‘That bird’ is a singular noun, so we
need ‘doesn’t’ here.
“That bird doesn’t fly fast.”
Number five is correct – “I don’t teach English.”
Number six is wrong – you need ‘don’t’ again because
the subject is ‘We’.
So “We don’t live together.
Number seven is wrong as well.
And this is another common type
of error.
The –s is added here – that’s good – but
it’s added to the main verb – go.
It should be added to the helping verb, not the
main verb.
So “She doesn’t go to college.”
Number eight is correct – “It doesn’t work.”
Finally, number nine is wrong.
For ‘They’ you need ‘don’t’.
So “They don’t cook very
well.”
Alright, let’s now move on to the final topic in this
lesson, and that is the special case of the verb ‘be’.
Why is the verb ‘be’ a “special case”?
Well, it’s different from other verbs
in two ways: first, it’s irregular.
What does that mean?
Well, if you remember, we learned that the verb
‘work’ has two present simple forms: You use ‘work’
with ‘I’, ‘You’, ‘We’, ‘They’ and plural subjects.
And you use ‘works’ with ‘He’, ‘She’, ‘It’ and
singular subjects.
All verbs are like this – they
have two present simple forms.
Except for the verb ‘be’.
This verb has three forms – am, is, and are.
If the subject is ‘I’ we use ‘am’.
For example, “I am a teacher.”
In speech, we normally shorten this to
“I’m ” - “I’m a teacher.”
If the subject is ‘He’, ‘She’, ‘It’ or any singular
noun, then we use ‘is’.
“He is”, “She is” or “He’s” and
“She’s”.
“Jamila is a teacher” (or you could say
“Jamila’s a teacher”).
If the subject is ‘You’, ‘We’, ‘They’ or any plural
noun, then we use ‘are.’
So “You’re”, “We’re” and
“They’re”.
Notice that when we have plural nouns (like
Charles and Julie) we don’t shorten the verb – that is,
we say ‘are’ fully – “Charles and Julie are
teachers”.
We only shorten pronouns and singular
nouns.
So that’s the first difference between ‘be’ and
other verbs – there are three forms: ‘am’, ‘is’,
and ‘are’.
The second difference is that the verb
‘be’ is very strong.
What I mean by that is when ‘be’
is the main verb in a sentence, then it needs NO
helping verb.
Remember : to make “I work” negative, we say “I don’t
work” – so ‘work’ is the main verb and ‘do’ is the
helping verb.
But ‘be’ does not need a helping
verb.
And this is important because when you want to
make a negative sentence, you add ‘not’
right after ‘be’.
You can see this now – ‘I’m not’.
‘He’s not’ ‘She’s not’.
‘You’re not’, ‘We’re not’ and so on.
Sometimes, you will see the forms ‘isn’t’ and ‘aren’t’.
This is especially true with plural nouns.
This is also correct.
Alright, keep these rules in mind when
making sentences with ‘be’.
Let’s now do a quick recap of this lesson.
We started with making positive (or affirmative)
statements.
We discussed rules for adding –s to the
verb in a sentence.
We then looked at spelling rules
for adding the –s.
You see the chart on the screen
now.
Then we moved on to making negative sentences.
Remember to pull the helping verb ‘do’ out of
its hiding place, put it before the main verb and
add ‘not’ to it.
Finally, we learned the two
important ways in which the verb ‘be’ is different –
first, it has three forms – ‘am’, ‘Is’ and ‘are’, and
second, it has no helping verb, so to make negative
sentences, you put ‘not’ right after it.
Alright, it’s now time for the test to see if you can
make present simple tense sentences correctly.
On the screen, there are ten sentences.
In each sentence, you see the verb
in parentheses (or round brackets).
Fill in the gaps with the correct form of
the verb.
If you see a plus sign, use a positive form,
and if you see a minus sign, use a negative form.
In sentences nine and ten, there are two signs because
there are two verbs.
Stop the video now if you want,
think about your answers, then play the video again
and check.
Alright, let’s look at the answers.
Number one is “She studies computer science.”
Note the spelling – ‘studies’ is spelled
without ‘y’ and with ‘ies’.
Number two – “Krishna is a fantastic singer.”
because Krishna is a singular noun.
Number three is “We usually don’t eat dinner so early.”
You can also say “We don’t usually eat dinner so
early.”
– that’s also OK.
Number four is “I hate loud music.”
Number five – “Elsa and Kurt don’t live in Las
Vegas anymore.”
Be careful when there are two nouns
like in this sentence.
Some people make the mistake of
saying ‘doesn’t’ because they’re thinking about Elsa
and Kurt as singular nouns.
But because they’re two people, they’re a plural
subject – ‘don’t’ is correct.
Number six - “He’s not very friendly.”
or “He isn’t very friendly” – both are
OK.
Number seven should be “My daughter misses me when
I’m away.”
‘Misses’ is spelled with ‘es’,
remember.
Number eight – “You wake up at 6 am every day, don’t
you?”
In number nine, there are two gaps : “She says
she doesn’t remember me.”
It’s a common mistake to say “She say.”
Don’t make that mistake – it’s “He
says” and “She says”.
Alright, and finally, in number ten, again two gaps:
“Those aren’t spoons.
They’re forks.”
How many answers did you get right?
Let me know in the comments section below.
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I hope you enjoyed this
lesson, and I will see you in the next lesson.