Page 16 - Starting Strong: English Essentials

Language Focus

Simple Present Tense

Verbal sentences
People’s personality traits can be reflected in their habitual actions. To express habitual actions (routines)
we can use the Simple Present Tense. Here are the patterns and some examples:

Subject Verb 1
Add time expressions, such as
I
“always”, “usually”, “often”,
You study.
“rarely”, “every day”, “once a
We
week”, etc., to indicate the
They
frequency or repetition of the

Subject Verb 1 + s/es action
He Example:
She studies. I always study.
It She studies once a week.

To create negative sentences and interrogative sentences, follow these patterns.

Negative Interrogative
Subject Subject
(I, you, we, they) do not Verb 1 Do (I, you, we, they) Verb 1?
I I
You you
do not study. Do study?
We we
They they
Subject does not Verb 1 Does Subject Verb 1?
(he, she, it) (he, she, it)
He he
She does not study. Does she study?
It it

Nominal sentences
We can also use adjectives with the Simple Present Tense to describe personality traits. Pay attention to
the sentences in bold from the previous text about Aarushi.
• Some sentences follow this pattern:
Subject be (am/are/is) adjective describing a personality trait
She is understanding.
Aarushi is supportive.
She is reliable.
She is adventurous.

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