PRESENT TENSE
Singular Number Plural Number
1st Person I like We like
2nd person You like You like
3rd Person He likes They like
Rules to use Present tense:
1 To express universal truths, facts, customs
2 To express habitual, routine actions.
3 To express a permanent state
4 In subordinate clauses beginning with if and when
5 To indicate a planned future action or series of actions when they refer to a journey.
6 In running commentaries.
7 To introduce quotations.
8 In imperative sentences.
9 In exclamatory sentences
Let us see some examples: -
(1) To express a habitual action; as,
He drinks coffee every morning.
I get up every day at six o'clock.
(2) To express general truths; as,
The sun sets in the west.
Sugar is sweet.
Fortune favours the brave.
(3) In exclamatory sentences beginning with here and there to express what is actually
taking place in the present; as,
Here comes the train!
There he goes!
(4) In vivid narrative, as substitute for the Simple Past; as,
Immediately the Sultan hurries to his capital.
(5) To express a future event that is part of a fixed timetable or fixed programme
The next flight is at 8,00 tomorrow evening.
The match starts at 9 o'clock.
The train leaves at 5.30.
When does the coffee house reopen?
Note also the other uses of the Simple Present Tense.
(1) It is used to introduce quotations; as,
Keats says, ‘A thing of beauty is a joy for ever’.
(2) It is used, instead of the Simple Future Tense, in clauses of time and of condition; as,
I shall wait till you finish your lunch.
If it rains, we shall get wet.
(3) As in broadcast commentaries on sporting events, the Simple Present is used, instead
of the Present Continuous, to describe activities in progress where there is stress on the
succession of happenings rather than on the duration.