2. The Simple Present Tense
1. The simple present tense of verbs is used to
express:
a. A habitual action
•Vilma wakes up early every morning.
•Vilma and Mother pray and thank God for all his
blessings.
•She visits her grandma every weekend.
•Lisa gets up at 8 am.
•They drink tea in the morning.
3. The Simple Present Tense
b. A general truth that occurs or happens
periodically
•The sun rises in the east.
•The sun sets in the west.
•Honey is sweet.
•A magnet attracts iron.
•Water boils at 100 degrees Celsius.
4. The Simple Present Tense
c. A condition that is not repeated.
•Isabel loves classical music.
•Thea loves modern art.
•Both love folk dances of the Philippines.
5. 2. The simple tense of the verb has two forms:
Base form
=verbs without letter s at end of the word
=plural form of the verb
=for plural subject
=for subjects I, you, we, they, or plural count
nouns.
6. Examples:
• They drink tea in the morning.
• Vilma and Mother pray and thank God for all his
blessings.
• Some people spend countless hours building the
perfect body but neglect their minds.
• Most Filipinos agree that politics in the country is
dirty.
• I remember walking through rows of self-help
books.
• You practice what you know and you use it.
7. 2. The simple tense of the verb has two forms:
S form
=verbs with letters s at the end of the word
=singular form of the verb
=for singular subject (she, he, it)
8. 2. The simple tense of the verb has two forms:
Examples:
•The sun rises in the east.
•The sun sets in the west.
•A magnet attracts iron.
•Water boils at 100 degrees Celsius.
9. The be verbs has three present forms:
=am, is, and are
= am ( for pronoun I)
= is ( for singular subject)
= are (for plural subjects)
Examples:
• I am an early riser.
• Honey is sweet.
• Self-help books are all over the place these days.
10. 3. Adverbs of frequency like always, usually,
often, on Saturdays, everyday, and every month
are used to signal the simple present tense.
Examples:
•I often attend the eight o’clock mass on
Sundays.
•On week days, I usually go to school at seven
o’clock.
11. The Simple Past Tense
The simple past tense shows actions and events
that happened in a definite past.
There are two ways of forming the past tense of
verbs, namely:
1. By adding –ed or –d
•walk – walked look – looked
•glance – glanced lift – lifted
•dance – danced live – lived
•dismiss – dismissed play – played
•show - showed
12. The Simple Past Tense
The simple past tense shows actions and
events that happened in a definite past.
There are two ways of forming the past tense
of verbs, namely:
2. By changing the spelling
•bleed – bled is – was think – thought
•make – made go – went eat - ate
13. There are many common verbs whose
past tense forms do not end in
–d or –ed. They are called irregular verbs.
Look at the following examples:
Base Form Past Form Base Form Past Form
be was, were tell told
have had go went
do did know knew
lie lay come came
make made find found
14. Adverbial expressions clearly set the
definite past time frame of the actions. They
signal the use of the past tense
yesterday last Sunday
three days ago last month
last week ten years ago
in 1946 on June 12,1898
15. The Simple Future Tense
The simple future tense expresses futurity
through the shall-will form. Shall or will is
generally shortened to ‘ll and attached to the
pronoun when used in conversation.
Examples:
A: When will you turn eleven?
B: I’ll turn eleven this coming August.
16. The Simple Future Tense
A: Shall I come early for the party?
B: Yes, please come early. I shall invite our former
classmates. I’d like you to meet them earlier than
the rest.
17. Three other ways of expressing the future tense
are as follows.
1. The simple present can be used to express the
future. It should be used with a time expression as
in:
• When do turn eleven?
• I turn eleven this coming August.
2. To be + going to can also be used to express the
future.
•When are you going to turn eleven?
•I’m going to turn eleven in August.
18. 3. Likewise, the present continuous can also be
used to express the future. It should also be used
with a time expression as in:
•When are you turning eleven?
•I’m turning eleven in August.
Common time expressions are used with the
future tense: tonight, tomorrow, next week, very
soon, in a few days, and sometime next week.
