Simple Present Tense

I sing

How do we make the Simple Present Tense?

subject	+	auxiliary verb	+	main verb
		do		base

I have breakfast with my family.

There are three important exceptions:

For positive sentences, we do not normally use the auxiliary.
For the 3rd person singular (he, she, it), we add s to the main verb or es to the auxiliary.
For the verb to be, we do not use an auxiliary, even for questions and negatives.

Look at these examples with the main verb like:

	subject	auxiliary verb		main verb
+	I, you, we, they			like	coffee.
+	He, she, it			likes	coffee.
-	I, you, we, they	do	not	like	coffee.
-	He, she, it	does	not	like	coffee.
?	Do	I, you, we, they		like	coffee?
?	Does	he, she, it		like	coffee?

Look at these examples with the main verb be. Notice that there is no auxiliary:

	subject	main verb
+	I	am		French.
	You, we, they	are		French.
	He, she, it	is		French.
-	I	am	not	old.
	You, we, they	are	not	old.
	He, she, it	is	not	old.
?	Am	I		late?
	Are	you, we, they		late?
	Is	he, she, it		late?

How do we use the Simple Present Tense?

We use the simple present tense when:

the action is general
the action happens all the time, or habitually, in the past, present and future
the action is not only happening now
the statement is always true

John drives a taxi.
past	present	future

It is John's job to drive a taxi. He does it every day. Past, present and future.

Look at these examples:

I live in New York.
The Moon goes round the Earth.
John drives a taxi.
He does not drive a bus.
We meet every Thursday.
We do not work at night.
Do you play football?

Note that with the verb to be, we can also use the simple present tense for situations that are not general. We can use the simple present tense to talk about now. Look at these examples of the verb "to be" in the simple present tense - some of them are general, some of them are now: