TENSES

 SIMPLE TENSE

Tenses play a crucial role in the English language. It denotes the time an action takes place, whether sometime in the past, in the present or will take some time in the future.

From a general view of tenses, this module will go on to discuss each tense in detail with examples and also 

Tenses	Rules or Tips to Use Tenses or When to Apply Tenses	Use Tense with example
Simple Present	Planned and Scheduled Events	Clock ticks twelve
	Description of Routines	Ashok visits the orphanage daily
	Universal Truth	Earth rotates around the Sun
Present Continuous	When an activity that started recently and is in continuing while we speak about it	Radha is jogging while talking to Suman
	An action that is taking place but not at that particular moment	I am watching The Blacklist on Netflix these days
	An action that will take place in the future for sure	I am going to school tomorrow
Present Perfect	The action is over but still has an effect on the present	I have finished all my chores for the day
Present Perfect Continuous	An activity that started in the past and is likely to continue in the future or not sure when it will end	I have been staying in Canada for the last fifteen years now
Simple Past	Action started and ended in the past	She completed her graduation last year
	Reference to historical events	Mangal Pandey revolted in 1857
Past Continuous	An action that was going on in the past and has now ended	We were eating strawberries in the morning
	Reference to person’s persistent habit(s)	He was always a complaining type
Past Perfect	An action completed before a certain moment in the past	I had met Amitabh Bachchan few years back
	When two actions have taken place in the past and we want to refer to the earlier event out of the two	The plane had landed before I reached to pick her from the airport
Simple Future	An action that is likely to take place in future	India will launch a satellite in 2020
	An activity we can control in the future	I will write CAT 2019 exam
Future Continuous	An activity that wil certainly be happening in continuation in future	I will be watching the Oscars tonight
Future Perfect	When action 1 will be complete by the time action 2 will begin in the future	I will have been married by the you will come back from A

1. Present Tense indicates an action which happens in the present, but it isn’t necessary for actions to happen right now. Simple present tense indicates, unchanging situations, general truths, scientific facts, habits, fixed arrangements and frequently occuring events.

The Structures of Simple Present Tense

POSITIVE FORMS (+) :

Subject ( I, You, We, They ) + V₁  ( First Form of Verb )

Subject ( He, She, It ) + VERB – S / ES / IES

NEGATIVE FORMS (-) :  

Subject ( I, You, We, They ) + do not / don’t + V₁  ( First Form of Verb )

Subject ( He, She, It ) + does not / doesn’t + V₁  ( First Form of Verb )

QUESTION FORMS (?) :

Do + Subject ( I, You, We, They ) + V₁  ( First Form of Verb )

Does + Subject ( He, She, It ) + V₁  ( First Form of Verb )

SHORT ANSWER FORMS ( + / – ) : 

YES / NO + Subject ( I, You, We, They )+ do / do not (don’t)

YES / NO + Subject  ( He, She, It ) + does / does not (doesn’t)

POSITIVE (+) NEGATIVE (-) QUESTION (?) I start I do not (don’t) start Do I start You start You do not (don’t) start Do you start He starts He does not (doesn’t) start Does he start She starts She does not (doesn’t) start Does she start It starts It does not (doesn’t) start Does it start We start We do not (don’t) start Do we start You start You do not (don’t) start Do you start They start They do not (don’t) start Do they start ATTENTION: 1. In Simple Present Tense, we add the suffix -s at the end of the verbs for the third singular subjects (He, She, It). On the other hand, we use first forms of the verbs for other subjects (I, You, We, You, They). 2. Although we add the suffix -s at the end of the verb for the third singular subjects in positive sentences, we remove the suffix -s at the end of the verb in questions and negative sentences  because of being used ‘does’ or  ‘doesn’t’ as an auxiliary verb.   Positive Sentences (Sbj + V1 /V(-s,-es,-ies) Examples: My mother lets me go out with my friends. I prefer my coffee black. She puts the keys on the table. The teacher shouts at us all the time. I have two brothers. Coffee grows in Brazil.  Negative Sentences (Sbj + do/does not + V1) Examples: My mother does not (doesn’t) let  me go out with my friends. I do not (don’t) prefer my coffee black. She does not (doesn’t) put the keys on the table. The teacher does not (doesn’t) shout at us all the time. I do not (don’t) have two brothers. Coffee does not (doesn’t) grow in Brazil.  Question Sentences (Do/Does + Sbj + V1) Examples: Does your mother let you go out with your friends? Do you prefer your coffee black? Does she put the keys on the table? Does the teacher shout at us all the time? Do I have two brothers? Does coffee grow in Brazil?   NOTES: We use other question words (Like Who, What, Why , How much / many, How often etc.) in present tense.  1). Question Words (who, what, why, how much / many, how often etc.) + do / does + subject pronoun ( he, she, it, I, you, we, they) + V1  ( First Form of Verb ) Examples: How often does he call you? Why do you always do this? How much does it cost?  OR 2) Question Words (who, what, why, etc.) + V1 / V (-s,-es,-ies) + object pronouns  (me, you, him, her,it, us, them) Examples: Who gives him a scholarship? What makes you angry?