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Unit 9: Tenses

Time can be split into three periods The Present (what you are doing), The Past (what you did) notes
and The Future (what you are going to do).
The tenses we use to show what time we are talking about are split into the Simple, Continuous
and Perfect tenses.

9.1 Present tense

As the name suggests, present tense specifies the activities related to the current time or action.

9.1.1 simple Present tense

This is without doubt the most important tense in the English language and we use it in a great
number of very different situations in our lives.
It is used for the following cases:
1. Facts and generalization

Example: 1. The earth is round.
2. I go to the market.
2. Habits and routines

Example: 1. I brush my teeth everyday.
2. I wash my clothes with Surf.
3. Permanent situations

Example: My daughter goes to school by bus.
4. State verbs (e.g. be, have, think, know) more

Example: 1. I think I know him.
2. I know I am going to die soon.
5. Fixed/official arrangement that we can’t change

Example: I meet the chief minister at 11:00 am today.
Form: These sentences take first form of verb in agreement with the subject of the sentence.

Notes Apart from all the above uses, this tense is also used in:
1. Zero Conditional- If it rains, I go to play football.

2. First Conditional -We won’t get our pocket money, if we don’t pass this exam.
In sentences after “when”, “before”, “till”, “after”, “as soon as” (“Before you leave, please
take the keys”).

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