Top Pages
Home
A-Z Glossary
Punctuation
A-Z Confused Words
Common Mistakes
(ordered by seriousness) Top Tip
Get a grammar checker
for your browser ESL Vocabulary Lists Parts of Speech Lists Tests and Games Awkward Plurals Sayings and Proverbs Twitter YouTube
(ordered by seriousness) Top Tip
Get a grammar checker
for your browser ESL Vocabulary Lists Parts of Speech Lists Tests and Games Awkward Plurals Sayings and Proverbs Twitter YouTube
Simple Present Tense
This Page Includes...
What Is the Simple Present Tense? (with Examples)
The simple present tense is used:- To describe facts and habits. For example:
- He plays chess.
- To describe scheduled events in the future. For example:
- The plane lands in 5 minutes.
- To tell stories (particularly jokes). For example:
- He asks the policeman for directions. (This use of the simple present tense is quite rare.)
More Examples of the Simple Present Tense
The simple present tense is used:(1) To describe facts and habits:
- I like chocolate. (Fact)
- Angela runs a youth club full of glue-sniffers. (Fact)
- I ride horses in the summer. (Fact and habit)
- It always snows here in January. (Fact and habit)
- Dawn plays chess in the evenings. (Fact and habit)
This type of sentence, especially if it's describing a habit, will usually include a time expression like "always," "every year," "never," "often," "on Mondays," "rarely," "sometimes," or "usually."
(2) To describe scheduled events in the future
- The train arrives at 5 o'clock.
- It is low tide at 0234.
(3) To tell stories (particularly jokes) to make your listener or reader feel more engaged with the story.
- A horse walks into a bar, and the barman says, "why the long face?" (Compare to: A horse walked into a bar, and the barman said, "why the long face?")
- We heard the helicopter overhead. Suddenly, the radio bursts into life.
Forming the Simple Present Tense
The simple present tense is quite easy to form.base form
base form
+ "s"
Person | Example |
---|---|
First person singular | I run |
Second person singular | You run |
Third person singular | He/She/It runs |
First person plural | We run |
Second person plural | You run |
Third person plural | They run |
In other words, it only changes in the third person singular (he / she / it). It adds either s, es or ies.
The Negative Version
To create a negative sentence, use "do not" + [base form of the verb]. (Use "does not" with third person singular (he / she / it).)"do not" or "does not"
+ [base form of the verb]
- I do not like chocolate.
- Angela does not run a youth club full of glue-sniffers.
- I do not ride horses in the summer.
- It does not always snow here in January.
- Dawn does not play chess in the evenings.
The Question Version
If you need to ask a question, you can use the following word order for a yes/no question:"do" or "does"
+ [subject]
+ base form of verb
- Do you like chocolate?
- Does Angela run the youth club?
[question word]
+ "do" or "does"
+ [subject]
+ base form of verb
- Why does Tony talk so quickly?
- When do the farmers plant the corn?
"do" or "does"
+ [subject]
+ base form of verb
+ choice A
+ or
+ choice B
- Does Mark sing or dance?
- Do they want hamburger or sausages?
The Spelling Rules
For regular verbs, just add s:- talk > talks
- improve > improves
- guess > guesses
- mash > mashes
- fix > fixes
- go > goes
- fly > flies
- study > studies
Infographic for the Simple Present Tense

Interactive Verb Conjugation Tables
The tables below show all 12 tenses so you can see the simple present tense among the other tenses. (You can change the verb by clicking one of the green buttons.)Top 10 Regular Verbs
Top 10 Irregular Verbs
All 4 Past Tenses
Person | Simple Past | Past Progressive Tense | Past Perfect Tense | Past Perfect Progressive Tense |
---|---|---|---|---|
|
The simple past tense is for a completed activity that happened in the past.
|
The past progressive tense is for an ongoing activity in the past. Often, it is used to set the scene for another action.
|
The past perfect tense is for emphasizing that an action was completed before another took place.
|
The past perfect progressive tense is for showing that an ongoing action in the past has ended.
|
All 4 Present Tenses
Person | Simple Present | Present Progressive Tense | Present Perfect Tense | Present Perfect Progressive Tense |
---|---|---|---|---|
|
The simple present tense is mostly for a fact or a habit.
|
The present progressive tense is for an ongoing action in the present.
|
The present perfect tense is for an action that began in the past. (Often, the action continues into the present.)
|
The present perfect progressive tense is for a continuous activity that began in the past and continues into the present (or finished very recently).
|
All 4 Future Tenses
Person | Simple Future | Future Progressive Tense | Future Perfect Tense | Future Perfect Progressive Tense |
---|---|---|---|---|
|
The simple future tense is for an action that will occur in the future.
|
The future progressive tense is for an ongoing action that will occur in the future.
|
The future perfect tense is for an action that will have been completed at some point in the future.
|
The future perfect progressive tense is for an ongoing action that will be completed at some specified time in the future.
|
Video Lesson
The Other Present Tenses
The simple present tense is one of four present tenses. They are:The 4 Present Tenses | Example |
---|---|
simple present tense | I go |
present progressive tense | I am going |
present perfect tense | I have gone |
present perfect progressive tense | I have been going |
Printable and Sendable Test
Help Us To Improve Grammar Monster
- Do you disagree with something on this page?
- Did you spot a typo?
Next lesson >
See Also
Take a test on the simple present tense Tenses Simple past tense Past progressive tense Past perfect tense Past perfect progressive tense Present progressive tense Present perfect tense Present perfect progressive tense Simple future tense Future progressive tense Future perfect tense Future perfect progressive tense Glossary of grammatical termsPage URL