English as an Additional Language/Simple present tense

The present simple tense is usually regular. Yet, there are a few exceptions, particularly with verbs ending in 'y'. Compared to most other Indo-European languages, English regular verbs have simple conjugation, because the first and second person forms are the same.

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.

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 conjugate in different ways, including:

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