Past Simple: statements

 

Past Simple is a past tense. We use Past Simple to say what we did in the past. We use it for finished actions:

• I lived in Madrid last year.
• She went on holiday last week.
• I studied music at school.

 

1. In Past Simple, the verb ‘be’ has two forms — was and were:

 

Singular	Plural
I was You were He/She/It was	We were You were They were

• Jack and Tom were late this morning.
• It was cold yesterday.
• She was sad last week.

 

2. In Past Simple, we add -ed’ to regular verbs:

• To work  → I worked in a shop last year.
• To play → I played basketball on Monday.
• To cook →She cooked fish yesterday.

 

Spelling rules: ‘-ed’

 

a) For regular verbs ending in ‘-e’, add  ‘-d’:

• To live → John lived in Brazil.
• To close → She closed the door.

 

b) For regular verbs ending in one consonant + ‘-y’, change the ‘-y’ to “-ied”:

• To study → They studied German.
• To try → I tried to be kind.

 

c) For regular verbs that end in one vowel + one consonant, double the consonant and add ‘-ed’:

• To stop → They stopped the car.
• To plan → Nick planned a business trip.

 

Note: We do not double the consonants ‘y’ or ‘w’: To play → She played piano. To row → He rowed 3km yesterday. We do not double the consonant when the last syllable is not stressed: To listen → I listened to the radio. To visit → Margaret visited her mother on Tuesday.

 

3. Some verbs in English are irregular. They have different past forms:

 

break → broke	have → had
go →  went	take → took
leave → left	know → knew
make → made	send → sent
write → wrote	run → ran

 

Note: For the full list of irregular verbs, see the Pre-intermediate course, Verbs: irregular.

 

Present Simple: questions

 

To make questions in the Present Simple, we use Do or Does.

• Do you like oranges?
• Does he work here?
• Where does this train stop?

 

When do we use do or does?

 

Subject	Do/Does	Example
I	do	Do I have a coat?
You	do	Do you have a coat?
He/she/it	does	Does she have a coat?
We	do	Do we have a coat?
They	do	Do they have a coat?

 

When we ask questions in English, the word order is different.

 

When the answer is yes or no, we use the following word order:

 

Do or Does

Subject (I, he/she/it, you, we, they)

main verb (in infinitive without “to”)?

 

Examples:

Do	you	like	cake?
Does	John	walk	to school?
Do	Lauren and Sarah	have	bicycles?
Do	we	need	more milk?

 

To make questions with question words like where, when, how, why, etc, we put a question word before Do or Does:

 

quest. word	do or does	subj.	main verb
Where	does	Libby	go	to school?
Why	do	I	like	him?
How	do	you	like	your haircut?
When	does	the train	arrive?

 

Note: If you use does, don’t add “-s” to the main verb. Does he write books? NOT: Does he writes books?

 

With the verb ‘to be’, we do not use do or does. We use am, is, or are. The word order is the same.

 

Yes/No:

• Are you at home right now?
• Is he angry at me?
• Am I dreaming?

Question words:

• Why are you here?
• What is the answer?
• Where are they?

 

 

Present Simple: negative

 

To make negative statements in Present Simple, we use do not (don’t) or does not (doesn’t) + the infinitive form without “to” of the main verb.

 

Positive Sentence	Negative Sentence
I like candy.	I don’t like candy.
Tom plays basketball.	Tom doesn’t play basketball.
We want dinner.	We don’t want dinner.

 

Subject	Don’t/Doesn’t	Example
I	do not (don’t)	I don’t like ice cream.
You	do not (don’t)	You don’t like ice cream.
He/she/it	does not (doesn’t)	He doesn’t like ice cream.
We	do not (don’t)	We don’t like ice cream.
They	do not (don’t)	They don’t like ice cream.

 

Note: If you use doesn’t, don’t add “-s” to the main verb. She doesn’t think NOT: She doesn’t thinks.

 

When we use the verb ‘to be’ we don’t use ‘do’ or ‘does’.  We say ‘am/is/are + not’.

• I am from France. – I’m not (am not) from France.
• You are late. – You aren’t (are not) late.
• He is allergic. – He isn’t (is not) allergic.

 

 

Present Simple: statements

 

Present Simple describes things that are true, actions that happen many times, and simple statements of fact.

• I live in London.
• I work in a bank.
• I go to work every day.
• I play football on Sundays.

 

To make Present Simple, we use the base (infinitive) form of the verb without “to”:

• To live →  I live in London.
• To work  → I work in a bank.
• To go →  I go to work every day.
• To play → I play football on Sundays.

 

With “he”, “she”, “it”, add “-s” to the verb:

• I drink coffee.
• She drinks tea.
• It tastes good.

 

Spelling rules for adding ‘-s’

 

1. If the verb ends in -o, -ch, -sh, -ss or -x, add “-es”.

• I go to work. She goes to college.
• I teach English. He teaches French.
• I wash my face. She washes her hands.
• I kiss her. She kisses me back.
• I mix the drinks. She relaxes on the couch.

 

2. If the verb ends in a consonant (b, c, d, etc.) + –y, replace the –y with “-ies”:

• To carry → She carries a bag.
• To study → He studies history.
• To fly → An airplane flies.

 

     3. For the verb ‘have’ we say ‘he/she/it has’:

• I have a pen and he has a pencil.
• She has a book and she reads it.

 

Present Simple is often used with words like usually, sometimes, never or when talking about specific time (at 10.30, every Sunday, in winter, etc.):

• I usually have lunch in a small cafe around the corner, but on Sundays we go to a restaurant.

 

‘Be’ in Present Simple: questions

 

To make questions with be in the Present Simple, we put the verb before the subject and add a question mark at the end.

 

Singular	Plural
Am I? Are you? Is he/she/it?	Are we? Are you? Are they?

 

• Are you in the office?
• No, I’m not. I’m still at home.

 

• Is she alone in New York City?
• No, she isn’t. She is with her boyfriend.
• Oh, are they happy to be there together?

 

When we ask questions with be we can use question words like where, when, how, why, etc. To form such questions we put a question word first and put the verb before the subject.

• Where is your brother?
• How are you today?
• Why are you here?

 

The verb be may be contracted:

• What’s your hobby?
• Why’s your toy on the floor?

 

However, we usually do not contract a question word and the are form of be:

• Where are you?
• Where’re you? (not used in most situations)

 

• When are we leaving?
• When’re we leaving? (not used in most situations)

‘Be’ in Present Simple: negative

 

To make negative sentences using be in the Present Simple, we just add not after the verb.

 

Singular	Plural
I am not (’m not) you are not (aren’t) he/she/is not (isn’t)	we are not (aren’t) you are not (aren’t) they are not (aren’t)

 

The verb be takes the same form in positive and negative sentences. The only difference is that we add not.

• I’m not a pupil, I’m a student.
• They are not at home.
• She isn’t in London, she’s in Paris.
• We are not happy about this.

 

Note: “Is not” and “are not” can be contracted in two ways. The subject and verb can be contracted, or the verb and ‘not’. You are not a doctor. (full form) You’re not a doctor. You aren’t a doctor. She is not here right now. (full form) She isn’t here right now. She’s not here right now.

 

When we want to make a negative impersonal statement with ‘there + be’, we can add not or no depending on the noun that follows.

• There is no money in your wallet.
• There aren’t any chairs at the table.
• There isn’t enough food for everyone.

‘Be’ in Present Simple: statements

 

Be is a very important verb in English. We use it to talk about many things, such as age, height, weight, time, place, weather, jobs, etc.

 

Be tells us that something exists or happens. It can also show the nature and quality of things.

 

Be in the Present Simple Tense has the following forms:

 

Singular	Plural
I am (I’m) you are (you’re) he/she/it is (it’s)	we are (we’re) you are (you’re) they are (they’re)

*The contracted forms are written in brackets. They are used in more informal situations.

 

• Jack is a student. (he)
• His sister is a manager. (she)
• Jack is 20 and Tom is 26.
• They are from London.
• You are a nice person. (you singular)
• Both guys are dark-haired, and their eyes are blue. (they)
• The weather is great today. (it)
• We are happy to be here.
• You are all very talented people. (you plural)

 

Note: In the plural, the verb be only has one form – are.

• We are so happy together.
• Guys, you are so funny.
• They’re from London.

 

We use the verb ‘be’ impersonally to state the existence of something. When we use be in this way, the impersonal subject is there.

 

We use ‘there is’ for singular statements and ‘there are’ for plural statements. We can also use this impersonal phrase in interrogative sentences. When we use it in interrogatives, the word order is reversed.

• There is one person at the table.
• There are a lot of people here.
• Is there a good restaurant nearby?
• Are there many people there?

 

We also use be to build continuous tenses and the passive voice (see more on them in the respective sections).

 

Continuous

• Jack is watching a football game.
• We are planning a vacation to Italy.
• I am enjoying the movie.

 

Passive Voice

• It is used for many things.
• They are being taken to the hospital.

 

Note: In everyday speech we normally use the short forms of be.

• I’m 20 years old.
• It’s a beautiful day.
• They’re football fans.