All sections
Foundations
The verb system
Describing and connecting
- 09 Adjectives and adverbs
- 10 Prepositions
- 11 Conjunctions
- 12 Building longer sentences
- 13 Punctuation and capital letters
Words and sounds
Practice and progress
05.01Core
Present Simple
A habit, a routine, a fact that stays true.
The structure
Positive
Subject + V1 (+ s/es with he / she / it)
Negative
Subject + do not / does not + V1
Question
Do / Does + subject + V1 ?
When you use it
- Daily habits and routines: things you do again and again.
- Facts that are always true: science, geography, general truth.
- Timetables and fixed programmes: The bus leaves at six.
- Feelings, opinions and states with verbs like know, want, like, need, believe. These verbs are almost never used in the continuous.
Words that signal this tense
alwaysusuallyoftensometimesneverevery dayevery Fridaytwice a weekgenerally
Examples
- I go to college every day.میں روز کالج جاتا ہوں۔
- She teaches English at a school in Lahore.وہ لاہور کے ایک اسکول میں انگریزی پڑھاتی ہے۔
- Water boils at 100 degrees Celsius.پانی سو ڈگری سینٹی گریڈ پر ابلتا ہے۔
- They do not live in Islamabad.وہ اسلام آباد میں نہیں رہتے۔
- Does he work in a bank?کیا وہ بینک میں کام کرتا ہے؟
The mistake almost everyone makes
She go to school every day.
She goes to school every day.
With he, she, it (and any single person or thing) the verb takes s or es. This one rule causes more errors than any other in English.