English as an Additional Language/Simple present tense

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The present simple tense is usually regular although there are some exceptions especially with verbs ending with the letter 'y'. Compared to most other Indo-European languages, English regular verbs are simple to form and the only change in the ending of the verb is for the third person singular (i.e. he, she, it).

[edit] Regular Verbs

Here is an example of the form of the present simple for regular verbs, using the verb "to like":

• I like football.
• You like football.
• He/She/It likes football.
• We like football.
• They like football.

As you can see from the example above, the infinitive only changes for the 3rd person singular, where an s is added to the end of the word.

[edit] Irregular Verbs

English has a large number of irregular verbs, most significantly the verb "to be," which you are learning throughout this textbook. Other verbs are changed in different ways, which include:

• Verbs like can and should do not change in any present conjugation.
• Verbs like try add an ies instead of an s.
• Verbs like have use a completely different form in the 3rd person singular, in this case has.