NOTE 6: PRESENT / PAST / FUTURE TENSE

SIMPLE PRESENT TENSE

 Repeated Action

Use the Simple Present to express the idea that an action is repeated or usual. The action can be a habit, a hobby, a daily event, a scheduled event or something that often happens. It can also be something a person often forgets or usually does not do.

            Example : I play tennis


 Facts or Generalization

The Simple Present can also indicate the speaker believes that a fact was true before, is true now, and will be true in the future. It is not important if the speaker is correct about the fact. It is also used to make generalizations about people or things.

             Example : California is in America.


Scheduled Events in the Near Future

Speakers occasionally use Simple Present to talk about scheduled events in the near future. This is most commonly done when talking about public transportation, but it can be used with other scheduled events as well.

             Example : The bus does not arrive at 11 AM, it arrives at 11 PM    


Now (Non-Continuous Verbs)

Speakers sometimes use the Simple Present to express the idea that an action is happening or is not happening now. This can only be done with Non-Continuous Verbs and certain Mixed Verbs.

                Example : He does not need help now

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SIMPLE PAST TENSE

Past Tense is used to talk about something that started and finished at a definite time in the past.

For example: The past tense of the verb want is wanted.

To change a regular verb into its past tense form, we normally add –ED to the end of the verb.

• play – played

• cook – cooked

• rain – rained

• wait – waited

There are some words that are not adding the –ED at the end of the verb.

• ·         Eat – ate
• ·         Drive – drove
• ·         Sing – sang
•           Drink – drank

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FUTURE TENSE

Indicates that an action is in the future relative to the speaker or writer. There are no inflected forms for the future in English (nothing like those -ed or -s endings in the other tenses). Instead, the future tense employs the helping verbs will or shall with the base form of the verb:

• She will leave soon.

• We shall overcome

The future is also formed with the use of a form of "go" plus the infinitive of the verb:

• He is going to faint.