Contents

Present Simple with 'Do' for Emphasis ................................................................................................. 3

The Present Continuous for Habits in the Present ................................................................................. 4

The Past Simple and Would with 'Wish' ............................................................................................... 5

The Past Simple for Past Habits and States ........................................................................................... 6

The Past Simple for Ordering Actions .................................................................................................. 7

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 Present Simple with 'Do' for Emphasis

Of course, we use 'do' and 'does' in questions and negatives in the present simple.

• Does she like chocolate?

• I don't live here.

However, we can sometimes also use 'do' and 'does' in normal, positive sentences in the present
simple. This is called using 'do' for emphasis. We use it when we want to tell people that they are
wrong!

• A: Jane doesn't live in Paris.

• B: That's not true. She does live in Paris.

We use it with imperatives. This makes them stronger but it's quite polite.

• Do sit down.
• Do have some cake!

We use it just to make the present simple stronger.

• I like coffee. (This is normal.)

• I do like coffee. (This means I really like coffee.)

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 The Present Continuous for Habits in the Present

We can use the present continuous to talk about habits that are not regular. Instead these habits
happen often but at irregular times. Usually we need 'always', 'forever' or 'constantly'.

• She's forever losing her keys.

• He's always smiling.
• The car is constantly breaking down.
• My mother is always bringing us little treats.

Sometimes this use includes the idea that something happens too often, so the sentence has a negative
or annoyed feeling. But this isn't always true. 'He's always smiling' is positive. Notice the difference
with habits in the present simple. The present simple is neutral emotionally, and often suggests that
the habits happen at regular times.

• I drink coffee every morning (present simple - completely neutral sentence).

• He's constantly drinking coffee (present continuous - suggests he drinks too much coffee).

It's important to remember that we can often choose the present simple or present continuous to talk
about the same habit. Both are correct but we choose depending on how we feel about the habit and
depending on which adverb (always / forever / constantly / usually / often, etc) we use.

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 The Past Simple and Would with 'Wish'

When we use 'wish' to talk about the present, we usually use it with the past simple. This is similar to
the way that we use the past simple in the second conditional to talk about unreal things in the present.

• I wish (that) I had a bigger house!

• I wish (that) the weather was better!
• I wish (that) you were here.

We often drop 'that' after 'wish'. It's correct both ways. We can also use 'wish + would + infinitive' to
talk about things that we don't like in the present. We use 'would' when we are talking about someone
else's behaviour that we want to change. It's often blaming the other person a little bit for doing
something we don't like.

• I wish (that) he would stop smoking!

• I wish (that) the children wouldn't watch so much TV.
• I wish (that) she wouldn't complain all the time.

Often, it's fine to use either 'wish + past simple' or 'wish + would'. 'Wish + past simple' doesn't give us
the feeling of blame – it's just a fact.

• I wish (that) she didn't complain all the time.

Sometimes, we imagine that something like our car or our computer or the weather has feelings and
behaviour that we'd like to change!

• I wish (that) it wouldn't rain so much!

• I wish (that) my car would start easily.
• I wish (that) my computer wouldn't crash so often.

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 The Past Simple for Past Habits and States

Of course, we can use the past simple to talk about one action that happened in the past. But we can
also use the past simple to talk about states and habits (or repeated actions) in the past. We can use the
past simple to talk about a state in the past (often with a stative verb).

• He was very slim when he was a child.

• We had a red car in the 1990s.
• In the Stone Age, people had stone tools.
• I liked sweets in the past, but I don't like them now.

We can also use 'used to + infinitive' to talk about states in the past. The meaning is very similar to the
past simple. With 'used to' we don't need to make it clear when the state existed. We can use the past
simple to talk about repeated actions or habits in the past.

• I drove to work when I lived in the countryside.

• She swam every day in the 1980s.
• In the past, many people rode horses.
• We picked strawberries every summer when I was young.

We can also use 'would + infinitive' and 'used to + infinitive' to talk about habits in the past. The
meanings are very similar to the past simple.

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 The Past Simple for Ordering Actions

We can use the past simple to say that one thing happened before another thing. In this case, normally
the first action that we say is the one that happened first. This is important to be clear about, because
it's not true when we start talking about the past continuous and the past perfect. We can also drop the
subject if it doesn't change.

• I went home and had dinner. (This means that first I went home and then second I had
dinner.)
• She rented a car and drove to the beach.
• He called us and we went to pick him up.
• They met and they fell in love.

We can also use the past simple to talk about things that happened at the same time or more or less the
same time.

• I studied French and I enjoyed it.

• He cycled and his dog ran beside him.
• James watched TV and Julie read a book.
• I cooked and chatted.

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