Present Simple: теперішній простий час

When you use it

You use the present simple for things that are generally true, not only true right now. That covers habits and routines (I get up at seven), permanent situations (Anna works at a hospital), facts (water boils at 100 degrees) and fixed timetables (the train leaves at 8.15). It is not the tense for what is happening at this moment; that is the present continuous. The present simple answers the question what is normal?

How it is formed

For I, you, we and they the verb is the base form, exactly as in the dictionary. For he, she, it and any singular noun the verb takes -s. That single ending is the whole grammar of the affirmative.

Subject	Affirmative	Negative	Question
I, you, we, they	work	do not work / don't work	Do you work?
he, she, it	works	does not work / doesn't work	Does she work?

Negatives and questions use the helper do or does; they are explained in the next lesson, present simple: questions and negatives. This lesson concentrates on the affirmative and on the third person ending.

The -s ending has spelling rules that match the plural of nouns.

Verb ends in	Rule	Examples
most letters	add -s	works, plays, lives
-s, -sh, -ch, -x, -o	add -es	passes, washes, watches, fixes, goes, does
consonant + -y	change -y to -ies	studies, tries, carries
vowel + -y	add -s	plays, enjoys, buys
irregular		have becomes has

The ending is pronounced /s/ after a voiceless sound (works, gets), /z/ after a voiced sound or vowel (lives, plays) and /ɪz/ as an extra syllable after a hissing sound (watches, passes). Does and says have an irregular vowel: /dʌz/, /sez/.

Typical time expressions with the present simple are every day, every week, on Mondays, in the morning, at the weekend, usually, always, never. The adverbs of frequency have their own lesson.

Be does not follow this pattern at all (am, is, are), and modal verbs such as can never take -s. Everything else does.

Examples

• I work in a small shop in the centre.
• Anna works at a hospital.
• Tom gets up at seven every day.
• The shop opens at nine and closes at six.
• Water boils at 100 degrees.
• We live near the park.
• My sister studies medicine.
• Tom has coffee every morning.

Common mistakes

• ✗ She work in a bank. He live in a village. It rain a lot here.
  ✓ She works in a bank. He lives in a village. It rains a lot here.
  Ukrainian and Russian change the verb ending for every person (працюю, працюєш, працює), so the idea of an ending is not new. English has only one ending in the whole tense, and because it is so small, it is easy to forget. It is also the first thing any reader or examiner notices. Say the subject, then decide: he, she, it means -s.
• ✗ I am work every day. She is live in a flat.
  ✓ I work every day. She lives in a flat.
  Be is not a helper in the present simple. I am + verb only exists in the continuous (I am working), which means something different. The present simple is the bare verb with nothing in front of it.
• ✗ I am reading a lot. (meaning: as a habit)
  ✓ I read a lot.
  Ukrainian and Russian have one present form, читаю, for both a habit and an action in progress. English separates them: I read a lot is a habit, I am reading is what is happening now. When the sentence describes what you usually do, choose the present simple.
• ✗ He haves a dog. She gos to school. It dos not matter.
  ✓ He has a dog. She goes to school. It does not matter.
  Have becomes has, and verbs ending in -o take -es: goes, does. These three are among the most common verbs in English, so their forms are worth learning as words.
• ✗ Everybody know that. Nobody like him.
  ✓ Everybody knows that. Nobody likes him.
  Everybody, everyone, somebody, nobody and each are grammatically singular in English and take -s. In Ukrainian and Russian всі знають / все знают is plural, so the singular verb feels wrong but is required.

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