VERB TENSES

Basic English II
Bartolo Cuevas Volquez
Section 291

Group #3
 Integrantes:
Luz Natalia Rijo Leite, 23-EPSS-2-089.
Carolan Estefani De Castro Ramírez, 23-EPSS-2-147.
Ivelisse Sorangel Fernández Santana, 23-EPSS-2-158.
Dameiris Esthel Bone Mercedes, 23-EPSS-2-166.
Juan Esteban Tejeda Jiménez, 23-EPSS-2-127.
Nairoby De La Cruz, 23-EPSS-2-093.
Yuleisy Maxiel Brito Leonardo, 23-EPSS-2-111.
María Isabel Astacio Mercedes, 23-EPSS-2-264.
 Simple Present

Present Progressive
 Simple Present
Simple present, also called present tense, is the present
tense in English. It's similar to the present indicative in
Spanish and is used to express actions that take place at the
moment of speaking, that are part of a routine and are
repeated regularly, actions that follow one after another.
That are programmed, or done with permanent validity.
 Grammatical Rules
Form
I, you, we, they
To conjugate the simple present we talk, eat, learn, do, go…
use the infinitive for the subjects "I", He, she, it
"you", "we" and "they" and for the talks, eats, learns, does, goes…
third persons "he", "she" and "it", we
add an "-s" to the end of the verb.
Note: There are spelling exceptions in the third person,
depending on the letter the verb ends with. The rules
are the same as those used to form the plural of nouns.
 Examples:

I am eating a sandwich.
Estoy comiendo un sándwich.

The kids are playing.

Los niños están jugando.

We are watching a movie.

Estamos viendo una película.
 Affirmative Sentences
Structure 1. Subject + verb. Examples:
I talk (Yo hablo), He eats (Él come), They learn (Ellos aprenden)

Negative Sentences

2. Subject + auxiliar verb (to do) + negative auxiliar (“not”) + verb.

Examples:
I do not [don’t] talk (Yo no hablo), He does not [doesn’t] eat (Él no come)

Interrogative Sentences
3. Auxiliar verb (to do) + subject + main verb ? Examples:
Do you talk? (¿Tú hablas?), Does he eat? (¿Él come?)
 Uses
The simple present is usually used with
adverbs of time:

Always (siempre).
1. The simple present is used to talk about Everyday (cada día).
things that happen regularly. Unlike in Usually (normalmente).
Spanish, the simple present is not used to Often (a menudo).
Sometimes (a veces).
talk about something that is happening at
Rarely (raramente).
the moment we are speaking.
Hardly ever (casi nunca).
Never (nunca).
Note: Examples:
Adverbs of time go before the verb, I always talk to my mother on Sunday.
except the verb "to be" (ser/estar). Siempre hablo con mi madre el domingo.
When "to be" is used, the verb goes
before the adverb. He never eats vegetables.
Nunca come las verduras.
 Examples:

He does not [doesn’t] eat vegetables-

Él no come verduras.
2. It's used to talk about
generalities or scientific She works in a hospital.
facts. Ella trabaja en un hospital.

Elephants live in Africa.

Los elefantes viven en África.

Bogota is in Colombia.
Bogotá está en Colombia.

Do children like animals?

¿Les gustan a los niños los animales?
 Examples:

The train leaves at 10:00.

3. Used for events El tren sale a las 10h.
scheduled in the near
The party is tonight.
future. La fiesta es esta noche.

Does the festival start tomorrow?

¿Empieza el festival mañana?

The plane does not [doesn’t] arrive today.

El avión no llega hoy.
 Examples:

Open the window.

Abre la ventana.
4. It's used for
Eat the vegetables.
instructions (the Come las verduras.
imperative).
Don’t cry.
No llores.

Do your homework.
Haz los deberes.

Call your mother.

Llama a tu madre.
Present Progressive
The present progressive (the present continuous) is used to talk
about an action that is happening right now.

The present progressive is formed with the verb to be (to be) in

the present, plus a gerund (present participle).

Formula of the present progressive/present continuous:

Verb to be + gerund
 Uses
1. Describing actions that occur at the exact moment of speaking or writing.

Example: You´re studying english.

2. Establish contexts. Talk about general, personal or social situations that occur today.
In these cases, it can be accompanied by adverbs such as currently, lately or these
days, among others.

Example: She is working a lot lately.

3. Advance facts, appointments, events or actions that will occur in the future. Whoever
speaks must be sure that they will occur.

Example: They are going to the zoo next Saturday.

 Uses
4. Mention temporary events.

Example: Today is snowing, but yesterday was sunny.

5. Describe actions that occur constantly. In these cases the sentence is

reinforced with adverbs such as always, forever, constantly, among others.

Example: The birds are always singing since sunrise

 Rules
As you can see, the dominant ending
in this tense is -ing, however, it's
worth noting the following rules for
the formation of gerunds in some
verbs:
Rule 1. All verbs end in -ing.
Every verb conjugated in the present
continuous must have this ending.
Example: The elephant is playing in the
water.
Rule 2. When a verb ends in a
consonant, the last letter must be
doubled to add the ending -ing.
Example: The jaguar is running.
 Rules
Rule 3. If the verb ends in silent e, this letter is eliminated and the ending -ing is placed.

Example: They are dancing cumbias.

Rule 4. Verbs that end in double e keep this ending and add –ing at the end.

Example: I am seeing my lawyer next Monday.

Rule 5. Verbs ending in -ie put in their place a y + -ing.

Example: He is lying to his boss.

 Contractions
It's very common to use present
contractions of to be with the present
progressive/present continuous. The
verb to be has three types of
contractions in the present, including
two negative variants.
Affirmative
I'm running. (Estoy corriendo).
You're talking. (Estás hablando).
He's dancing. (Está bailando).
We're eating. (Estamos comiendo).
They're sleeping. (Están durmiendo).
 Interrogative forms.
Negative
I'm not running. (No estoy corriendo). To ask questions using the present
progressive/present continuous, you have
You're not/aren't talking. (No estás
hablando). to reverse the subject and the conjugated
form of to be. We compare the affirmative
He's not/isn´t dancing. (No está
bailando). form with the interrogative form.

We're not/aren´t eating.

I'm running this heat.
Am I running this heat?

You're talking to me.

Are you talking to me?
 Simple Present vs
Present Progressive
In both English and Spanish, the present progressive is used
to talk about what is happening now. Unlike this, the simple
present is used to talk about habitual actions, statements of
facts and realities, opinions and general truths. Compare the
following examples; the first example of each pair uses the
present progressive, while the second uses the present simple.
Examples:

You are running right now.

Estás corriendo en este momento.

You run every day. Dan is talking now.

Corres todos los días. Dan está hablando ahora.

Dan always talks quietly.

Dan siempre habla despacito.
 Frequency Adverbs
We use the adverbs of frequency to indicate how often
we carry out a certain activity or action. We use some
adverbs to describe how frequently we do an activity.
These are called adverbs of frequency. Although there
are more, the most common frequency adverbs with
their approximate translation are:
 Non-Action Verbs
Non-action verbs are used to describe states, senses,
desires, possession, emotions and opinion. Non-action
verbs are not usually used in continuous tenses. For
example:

Like, Love, Want, Need, Believe, Remember, Belong,

Seem, Own, See, Taste, Hear.
 Future Time

Be goint to or Will
 Future Time
The future tense is a verb tense used for a future
activity or a future state of being. For example:

I will jump in the lake. (This is a future activity).

I will be happy. (This is a future state of being).
 How to form the
simple future

1.
The formula for the simple future is will + [root form of verb]. It
doesn’t matter if the subject is singular or plural; the formula for the
simple future doesn’t change. Examples: I will learn a new language /
Jen will read that book.

There is another way to show that something will happen in the

2. future. It follows the formula am/is/are + going to + [root form

verb]. Examples: I am going to learn a new language / Jen is going
to read that book.
How to make the simple
future negative
1.
To make the simple future negative, the formula is will + not + [root
form of verb]. Examples: Jen will not quit before she reaches her goal
/ Make sure you arrive on time tomorrow, because the bus will not
wait for you.

Using the going to construction, the formula is am/is/are + not +

2. going to + [root form]. Examples: Jen is not going to quit before she
reaches her goal / Make sure you arrive on time tomorrow, because
the bus is not going to wait for you.
How to ask a question in
the simple future
1.
To ask a question in the simple future, the formula is will + [subject]
+ [root form of verb]. Examples: Will Jen finish War and Peace over
the summer? / Will I have the discipline to study Spanish every day? /
What will you buy with the money you found?

The formula for the going to construction is am/is/are + [subject] +

2. going to + [root form of verb]. Examples: Is Jen going to finish War

and Peace over the summer? / Am I going to have the discipline to
study Spanish every day?
Certainty about the future
The future is uncertain. We know the past. We know the
present. We don't know the future. We can be 100%
sure or certain about the past and the present. But we
can never be 100% certain about the future. In English
there are several structures and tenses to talk about the
future. It's usually the degree of certainty about the
future that decides our choice of structure or tense.
 Be going to vs Will
If someone asks: "Are you busy this evening?"

If I respond: "Yes, I'm going to go to the

movies." I use going to because it's a plan I
made earlier (before I was asked the question).
- In this case we cannot use Will.
 Be going to vs Will
If I haven't made plans, then you can say either: "I
will probably watch TV." OR "I'm probably going to
watch TV."

Both will and going to are possible in this

situation because we are predicting what will
happen (since we haven't made any plans).
Expressing the future in time
clausses
In time clauses with words like when, after and until, we
often use present tense forms to talk about the future:

I'll come home when I finish work.

You must wait here until your father comes.
They are coming after they have had dinner.
In conditional clauses with words like if, unless, even if, we often
use present tense forms to talk about the future:

We won't be able to go out if it is raining.

I will come tomorrow unless I have to look after the children.
Even if Barcelona lose tomorrow, they will still be
champions.
We don't normally use will in time clauses and conditional
clauses:

I'll come home when I finish work. (NOT will finish work).
We won't be able to go out if it rains. (NOT will rain).
You must wait here until your father comes. (NOT will
come).
But we can use will if it means want to or be willing to:

I will be very happy if you will come to my party.

We should finish the job early if George will help us.
Using the present progressive to
express the future time
In English, we often use the present progressive (be +
verb + ing) to talk about future events which have already
been planned. Time words in the sentence, such as next
week, next year, tomorrow, etc., make it clear that the
action is not happening at this moment.
Verbs that describe states rather than actions are not used
in the progressive form. These include words like know,
believe, hear, love seem own and need.

I'm playing golf with some friends on Saturday. (Correct)

I'm needing a ride to work tomorrow. (Incorrect)
In the first example, the speaker is talking about an
action that has been planned. The use of the words on
Saturday tell us that the action is not happening now.
The use of the verb need in the second example is
incorrect. Need is used to show a state or condition
rather than an action. Therefore, it's wrong to use it in
the progressive form.
 Using the simple present to
express the future time

The present simple tense is used to talk about

future events that have been scheduled. Examples
would be meetings, timetables, airline schedules,
etc.
Hurry up! I don't want to miss any of the game.
It starts at 1:00.

The meeting is in the boardroom. It begins at

10:00.

He'll be here soon. His plane arrives at 6:45.

Immediate Future: Using be
about to
We use "be about to" + base form of the verb to refer
to things that we expect to happen very soon. We
often use it with just, for example:
The ferry is about to leave.
The driver is about to collect them. Shall I phone to stop him?
We’re just about to set off for a walk. Do you want to come?
With time expressions, we don’t use be about to, we use
the present simple:

Hurry up, please! The coach is about to leave!

Hurry up, please! The coach leaves in five minutes!
Not: The coach is about to leave in five minutes!
 Parallel Verbs
In English we can use more than one verb to describe what's
happening.

This sentence shows three things Donna (the subject of the

sentence) did yesterday:

"Yesterday Donna watched a movie, cleaned her apartment

and was making lunch".
 Parallel Verbs
When two or more verbs have the same subject the
verbs must be parallel. Parallel verbs mean the verbs
used in a sentence should all be the same tense.

The sentence is not correct because watched and

cleaned are the simple past tense, but was making is the
past progressive. The verbs are not parallel.
 Parallel Verbs
The correct sentence should be:

"Yesterday Donna watched a movie, cleaned her

apartment and made lunch".

Remember: when the subject of a sentence does two or

more things, the verbs use the same tense.